You’ve seen a piece of art by William L. Hawkins July 27 1895 — so you know what today is.
William Hawkins, or as he is known around my house, thanks to my son when he was a little four-year-old — William Hungrins, is one of the most inventive, humorous, and inspiring self-taught artists ever. Born in Kentucky and eventually settling in Ohio, Hawkins worked odd jobs his whole life while for decades seemingly also honing his style and working on creating a tremendous oeuvre of unmistakable his entire life.
Hawkins drew inspiration from magazine clippings and photographs, transferring and interpreting his outlook on life through house paint on found boards and materials, using, as he hysterically boasted, only one paintbrush. I mean, why would you need more than one brush when you could just wipe the paint off and dip it in a new color?
Most of Hawkins’s work seen comes from the 1980s, as it wasn’t until winning first prize at the Ohio State Fair that William Hawkins’ work was finally discovered, shared, sold, and collected by people worldwide… including little old me in 2018, upon stumbling across the ‘An Imaginative Geography’ exhibit in Davenport, Iowa where my jaw has been on the floor ever since.
Happy birthday William Hawkins.
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