Bio

A native of northern Illinois, William Weber has worked as an artist and photographer throughout his long career as an educator.  Having completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in drawing and painting at Northern Illinois University, he taught art, printmaking, photography, commercial art and illustration and digital imaging at both the college and high school levels.

He has exhibited in galleries in Illinois, Colorado, and New Mexico.  He has also participated in individual and group art shows at museums, including the Graham Center Museum in Wheaton, the Art Institute of Chicago’s Sales and Rental Gallery, and the Hubbard Museum of the American West, where he has won numerous awards.  Most recently, his photographic work was selected to hang as part of the Biennial Exhibition at Iowa’s Dubuque Museum of Art, and he won Best of Show at the Next Picture Show Gallery in Dixon, Illinois.

William Weber explores many themes in his photographic landscape work.  In particular, he is interested in how man interacted with nature as he moved across the prairie, pursuing his dreams and establishing his identity with the land.

Artist Statement

The images in this collection reflect my interest in documenting the western landscape with scenes of man’s impact on the land he sought to steward. Here are buildings in Colorado whose time-worn structures deteriorate in the midst of nature’s vitality. Here also are old roads to lost places, to lost dreams and to lost beauty. Here one discovers historical remnants of the Dust Bowl destruction and the coal field disputes.

I have explored how natural geography has governed man’s choices as he moved west and built on the prairie, on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains and beyond. The subjects have included isolated and abandoned buildings and roadways. The gray, black and tan tones underscore the hardships and disappointments of the struggle to settle and to survive. The terrain offers the photographer views of long landscapes and broad skyscapes in monochromatic light.

I have examined subjects, including desolate structures, tired roads, parched prairie, and quiet rivers.  The grays and blacks of the solitary, deteriorated buildings with threatening skies above, point to the exhaustion and hardship of the region stretching from the grasslands to the high desert. These underscore the social struggles and competition for arable land. The rivers and roads led the migrating farmers uncertainly west toward the mountains and deserts, while their sacrifices and losses were mitigated only by their trust and hope as evidenced by their determination to build and settle.

Process Statement

The images here were photographed with a medium format camera, a 35 mm. camera, a digital SLR camera, or a view camera. Photographs were produced as digital prints or hand colored silver gelatin prints.  The silver gelatin prints were produced in a traditional darkroom, and later oils were added. Some digital prints were produced using Photoshop enhancements. Other digital images were made into digital negatives and printed on silver gelatin paper in a darkroom.

Regarding monoprints, I have used the classical technique of applying printer’s inks, oil paints, or watercolor paints to a metal or plexiglass surface, then placing a sheet of Rives BFK paper on the colored surface and burnishing the reverse side with a wooden spoon or rubber brayer. I might also apply pressure using a pin press. After pulling the single image manually or with a press, I often apply pastels or pencil to create a multimedia piece.

Exhibitions

1981: Art Institute Sales and Rental Gallery, Chicago, IL

1985: Graham Center Museum, Wheaton, IL

Illinois Print and Drawing Show, College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL

1986: Illinois Print and Drawing Show, College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL

2001: Judson University, Elgin, IL

Next Picture Show Gallery, Dixon, IL

Woodstock Opera House Gallery, Woodstock, IL

Cuchara Hermosa Art Festival, Cuchara, CO

2004: McHenry County College Epping Gallery, Crystal Lake, IL

2005: Woodstock Opera House Gallery, Woodstock, IL

Cuchara Hermosa Art Festival, Cuchara, CO

2006: Fifth Street Gallery, Pueblo, CO

2012: Woodstock Opera House Gallery, Woodstock, IL

Hubbard Museum of the American West, Ruidoso, NM, Best of Show

2013: Woodstock Opera House Gallery, Woodstock, IL

SPACe Gallery, LaVeta, CO

Next Picture Gallery, Dixon, IL, Best of Show

Great Sand Dunes National Park Gallery, San Luis Valley, CO

2014: SPACe Gallery, LaVeta, CO

2015: Dubuque Art Museum, Dubuque, IA, Biennial

McHenry County College Epping Gallery, Crystal Lake, IL

2016: Dole Mansion Gallery, Crystal Lake, IL

Contact

williamweber3235@att.net