William Swanson Art

William R. Swanson

Art education - I Studied at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts and Fleisher Art Memorial.

Background Info - On the surface my background appears
unrelated to art but at a deeper level it is quite related. I'm a CPA who
was the audit director of a stock brokerage firm in Philadelphia for
fourteen years and studied art in the evenings. I left the brokerage
world in 2002 to pursue art. In a well run company the audit director
is given an unusual and necessary degree of independence so that
audit reports are not sugar coated to reflect favorably on the audit
director's superiors. Independence is an ingredient in creativity
which sets it apart from imitation. At times I would try to imagine what
scheme a white collar criminal would devise to defeat our controls,
whether a convoluted scheme on the floor of a stock exchange or
simple forgery of certain documents. Needless to say imagination is
important to creativity. I consider the auditing years as good
preparation in other ways as well, including the varied nature of the
work and the mental push required to audit a complex business, for
artistic endeavor. This is not to declare myself creative, for others
can be the judge of that, but to say that my background has been
one to promote rather than discourage this element.

Artist Statement -   My goal is creative
compositions that have a beauty, mood,
atmosphere, energy, unusual quality or some
combination of these.   I believe visual art
transcends words just as literature transcends
images so I leave it at that (for now).   Most of
my work is marines and landscapes, done
either in oil or acrylic.
   Occasionally I do portrait or figure work,
usually with a live model. In this work I attempt
to evoke within composition the state of being
of, as you might guess, a human.

Artwork Copyright William R. Swanson

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