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Village Squire, 1977-05, Page 191 don't know how to look at it and they don't know how to talk about it. Many, he says, became embarassed when actually faced by an art display and just sort of look down at the floor. Only about three per cent of the people in Canada actually buy art. But the interest in things artistic is still heavy in Canada, he points out. He calls it a "real shocker" when he found out that more people in Canada actually,go to cultural events than go to sports. Yet the media gives gobs of attention to sports and very little to the arts, he says. This lack of attention, he says, has been a problem for the gallery. The artists have been trying to have the Toronto media come out and take a look at the gallery but have had little luck. Most of his gripes, lack of publicity for the arts, high commissions for galleries, high cost of materials, are the traditional problems of artists. But in another area usually part of the artist's litany of woe, he is ambiguous, and that is government funding. He's still basically southwestern Ontario W.A.S.P. stock, he says, and it affects his thinking when it comes to grants. He recently received a grant from the Ontario Arts Council but had so much trouble getting it, and it was so small that it was hardly worth the effort. He wanted $1500 and got $500. It meant that the project he had in mind just can't be done as well because he can't afford to take as much time to do it. Then too there's the fact that government funding is often in large amounts to well-known artists who are already well off when the money could be split up in smaller amounts among many more lesser-known artists and do more good. Still, he says, he can see the government's point too in getting too heavily involved in funding of artists. What becomes the criteria for deciding who gets how much money? He has friends, he said. who are on a sort of grant treadmill and he wouldn't want to be in that kind of situation. While the gallery is the chief outlet for his work now, Bill still sells out of his own home and keeps a good supply of his ‘v ork, wrapped in cellophane for protection, in just about any place he can find room, including the front pot -h. Most of his works are large even huge. His "consumer" for instance, is nearly five feet square. His paintings range from $75 to $1000 in price. His career has built slowly since his first exhibit in North Bay in 1968. A native of London. the 35 -year-old artist studied at the New School of Art in Toronto and studied fine art at University of Guelph. He'd been drawing and painting all his life. but never really thought of being an artist. He'd had the usual run of being a shoesalesman and assembly -line worker but only in the last 10 years has he thought of himself as an artist. University gave him a chance to study art history and techniques, he says, but not much practical advice on how to earn a living as an artist. When he came out he says, he didn't even know where to get supplies at a wholesale rate. Artists seem to be very secretive about these things, he says. Recent years have seen the number of people trying to become professional artists explode. When Chimera recently offered to put artists on show the owners were swamped with people wanting to display. Yet things are as tough as ever for the person really wanting to be an artist for all the reasons mentioned earlier. Many artists try to keep up their income by holding down a full time job and doing their art on the side. That's hard, Bill says, because "art doesn't allow you to get into many other things." He's never really off duty in his job as an artist, he says. He's always sketching ideas for paintings, always thinking of new projects. He's lucky to have a wife who can bring in the regular income, he says, because that way he can have the time he needs to do his own work. Bill finds it difficult to express himself, how he feels about things, in words. "I paint it, I draw it," he says. His work is a kind of anarchy, according to him. He destroys an image and reworks it into a new image. The only reality to him, he says, is the moment of creativity. After a painting is done he can't really explain why he did it. It's an expression of how he was at that particular moment. He says he gets upset with people who say things like "I wish I could be an artist." "I think everybody's an artist, I haven't met anybody who isn't." MOTHER'S DAY IS EVERY DAY WITH MAYTAG DISHWASHERS It's Maytags turn to do your dishes and there's a Maytag just right for her needs. Choose from three built-in models and two convertible/portable models Shown above -- the WC401 Portable as a built-in after conversion. 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