ABOUT
Artist Statement
In my semi-abstract paintings, the subject is machines and their human connection.
My work explores the hidden elegance of the industrial world - a world I came to know intimately over a forty-year career in manufacturing. Long before I became a full-time artist, I spent decades immersed in the design and manufacturing of engineered machines. That experience gave me an intimate and deep understanding of machines that allows me to perceive them not merely as utilitarian objects, but for their brilliant fusion of science, materials and ingenuity designed to augment human physical and cognitive abilities.
Working primarily in acrylic paint, drawing medium and collage, I seek to challenge the popular perception of machines as cold or alienating and to reveal instead their inherent beauty, rhythm and fascination. I use rich color, layered texture, and composition based on interrelated mechanical elements to bring machines to life within their specific contexts.
Essential to my practice is capturing the subject from multiple perspectives. No single view can reveal their full significance. A machine has a physical structure, a purpose, a history and a relationship with the people who design, build, operate and depend upon it. It can extend human capability, make new things possible and sometimes replace human work. Seeing these different dimensions together enables a viewpoint to consider not only what machines do but also how they connect with and impact people.
The use of collage elements, drawn from in-depth technical research (performance specifications, engineering drawings, component sketches, background text) highlights the technology. The use of found items (wool roving, bronze guitar string, coal fragments, Andersonite rock, 3D printed salmon) introduces tactile depth. These materials serve a dual purpose: they function simultaneously as a visual language and as narrative, grounding each work in the logic and history of its subject.
By abstracting their forms and exposing their design elements and inner dynamics I hope not only to spark the same sense of respect, interest and curiosity that guided my own lifelong relationship with machines but also to inspire discourse on machine and human connection.
Bio
William Blankemeier is a Chicago-based artist whose practice emerges from four decades at the intersection of engineering, manufacturing and machine design. Over a career spent conceiving and building complex industrial machines, he developed an intimate understanding of their inner logic, one that now informs every canvas he makes.
His transition to studio practice was grounded through coursework at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he built the technical and conceptual foundation for his paintings. He works from his home studio in Chicago.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Middlebury College and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago - academic foundations that shaped the analytical discipline and systems thinking visible throughout his work.
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