An Interview with William Mitchell
Conducted via e-mail with Rex Rutowski
November 2005

Q-Where do you live?
A- I live in Dover New Hampshire
Q. Have you resided anywhere else in New Hampshire?
A -No
Q- When did you move to New Hampshire? What brought you to the state?
A-I moved to New Hampshire after attending Oneonta State College in NY because my parents had relocated to Exeter NH
Q Of what city/town in upstate NY are you a native? A. Through the years, where else have you lived?
A-I grew up in Catskill, NY. Catskill is a small village along the Hudson River. The Hudson River School of artist, such as Thomas Cole and Fredrick Church worked and lived in Catskill. I was aware of this growing up and made connections between the beauty of my natural surroundings world and these artists. I was also an avid comic book reader growing up. I spent most of my time drawing comic book characters and creating my own comic book characters. I made many visits to a local cartoonists studio, Joe Sinnott of Saugerties NY. Joe was one of Marvel comics best artist. Joe would review my efforts and was a huge artistic role model for a young boy living in a rural area where art galleries and such were not available.(See the comic book art of Bill Mitchell and his friend Kimball Thorpe at www.beanmancomics.com)
Q-When did you move to NH? And where else have you lived in NH?
A-I’ve made Dover my home since 1983. My wife Mary Malone and her family are Dover natives
Q- Are there any new projects to let people know about? Exhibits planned for 2006?
A-I have recently finished a commissioned print for the NH Sierra Club. The club is selling the print as a fundraiser to help their efforts in protecting our natural environment. The print in being sold for 100.00 and memberJim Sconyers is handling the sale of the print,
Q-Are there currently any ongoing exhibits of you work.
A-My work is featured prominently in many New Hampshire galleries and craftshops; I will have a few new prints in the 5th Annual NH Prints of the Year show, upcoming in January at the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord NH
Q- Do you work fulltime at UNH? What is your job title?
A-I have been employed for 22 years at UNH Printing Services in Durham NH where I work as a digital pre-press graphic artist.
Q- Do you also consider yourself a fulltime artist?
A-I consider myself a full time artist although my time is somewhat restricted.
Q- Do you also teach art?
A-I teach both adult and children’s classes in printmaking, painting and cartooning, I am interested in helping people explore and enjoy their creative potential.
Q-You do programs for schools? What do you enjoy about those?
A-I have been doing after school art classes and artist residences for the last few years. These experiences are very rewarding. I am continually amazed by the imaginations and talents of young people. I hope to inspire young people to create with their hands and generate their own ideas.
Q- How would you describe the NH Printmaking Project
A- The NH Printmaking project is an ongoing effort to introduce young people to several printmaking techniques. I use their feelings and ideas about our state as a departure point in developing their imagery; The NH Printmaking project brings simple hands on techniques to students of all ages. A goal of the NH Printmaking Project is to instill an appreciation for traditional printmaking techniques of creating multiple images. These skills are in danger of being lost as our culture continues forward in the computer age.
Q- May I ask your age?
A- I was born in Holyoke Massachusetts on December 15, 1958
Q-What attracted you to art?
A-I can’t ever remember not drawing or painting as a child. I would marvel at the rich colors of a fresh pack of crayons. Comic books and comic strips were a major source of visual inspirations. I enjoyed how they told stories with pictures and word balloons tried to imitate the work and create new work of my own. These activities developed into appreciation for painting and drawing. Prints were like comics because there were more then one copy produced. I always have been interested in creating identical series of artworks
Q- Do you come from an artistic family?
A-My grandfather painted in a folk style similar to Grandma Moses. He decorated long hallways in his home in with winter scenes of New England. I brought some of his work to an art professor once and he was interested in getting the work to an agent he knew. Unfortunately my grandfather was to ill at that point to create new works. He may have been a successful painter if this opportunity had come earlier!
Q-What have been some of your artistic influences? How were you inspired by them? (I see that Warhol was one. I live about 30 minutes from the Warhol museum in Pittsburgh. )
A-When I was an undergraduate at Oneonta State College I took a few bus trips to visit museums and galleries in NYC. I was introduced to contemporary printmakers like Andy Warhol, Richard Estes and Alex Katz. These artists were working in silkscreen. Much of my student work was influenced by their prints. A favorite artist is Neil Welliver from the state of Maine. Welliver painted lush landscapes of the Maine wilderness. The coloring in his painting is very inviting. His style while precise in execution is still loosely rendered and has great emotion.
Q-What do you feel/hope your strengths are as an artist?
A-I hope my artwork conveys the spirit of our natural world. I am interested in describing my feeling for nature through my prints and paintings.
Q- Would you say you have a particular style, something perhaps that people recognize was created by you?
A-People that are interested in dramatic color effects are attracted to my work. I hope people are also able to explore their feelings about nature through my work.
Q-Is most/all of your work in a realistic style?
A-Others have described my style as bordering on the abstract and the realistic. I am interested in walking the line between these styles.
Q-Why were you drawn to serigraphy as your primary medium? Why did it resonate for you?
A-The first time I saw someone working on a silkscreen print was something of a revelation to me. I was engrossed in the process of pushing globs of ink through a fabric stencil and thus creating an image on a sheet of paper. The process was mysterious, yet totally direct in nature. I couldn’t wait to get my hands in it and have not stopped yet.
Q- What does the 25th anniversary as a serigraph printmaker mean to you?
A-I have now been working as a serigraph printmaker for 26 years. I could describe these years as a journey with a degree of both success and failures. I am always eager to begin my next project. A long commitment in any activity is very rewarding personally.
Q- Are you involved in other mediums?
A-Many of my prints have their origins in watercolor painting done on sight,
Q-Do you do traditional painting?
A-Many of the prints begin with very developed watercolor or acrylic "sketches" these paintings are the kernels of inspiration for my prints.
Q-What motivates you to create?
A-Capturing my feelings for a moment to be remembered while interacting with nature,
Q-How do you decide if you want to paint/draw something? What inspires that decision?
A-I try to sketch places that are inspirational to me. These sketches are a way of capturing that special moment in time.
Q- There is much beauty in every state, including your native NY. What did you see in NH that particularly spoke to you, intrigued you?
A-The scenic beauty of New Hampshire amazes me. How the rolling of a blue-sky touch our rolling mountains to create a vibrant world. The intimate forests scenes, rushing streams and color everywhere are what inspire me. My paintings try to describe these scenes and bring order to a landscape that will never be organized and is joyful in its randomness,
Q- Is NH now your primary artistic inspiration?
A-Yes
Q- Where do you most enjoy hiking? Skiing? Do you get a lot of your artistic inspiration from these activities?
A-My family spends as much time as we can skiing and hiking in the Franconia region,
Q-What do you hope people take from your work?
A-An appreciation and preservation for our natural world.
Q-Is part of your goal to recapture an experience for people: to help them see what you saw, to experience what you experienced?
A-Yes most differently
Q-What comments do you hear from people about your work?
A-People tell me how much they love my work because it reminds them of their favorite NH places and moments in NH. Example: A skier will enjoy my work because it describes a shared feeling towards a special place.
Q-When you see something that inspires you, do you take a photo of it or make a sketch of it so that you will remember it until you are ready to explore it artistically?
A-Both when time permits.Q-In the Concord Monitor, you are quoted as saying, that making prints is a matter of marrying emotions and technical ability. Could you elaborate please?
A-I try to describe my feelings for nature through a complicated technical process in the actual printing. I face a jepodary of the technique overrunning the emotional factor. I try to use the technique to describe my emotions, not be an end to itself.
Q- Is this medium more difficult, more time consuming, than some others? A-The medium is very heavy in process, It is hard to achieve instant satisfaction for the piece, The process unfolds slowly and pleasure can be taken in those aspects in itself.
Q-How might you explain to a lay person the process of how serigraphy works?
A-In the simplistic explanation serigraph is a process of printing with a stencil to create multiple images. Each color of a print is a different stencil. These stencils are carefully registered on the printing paper to create the full and final image.
Q-Any idea how old this art form is?
A-Ancient cultures used different stencil printing techniques in creating fabric designs. The modern silkscreen was developed during the WPA project. Artists borrowed stencil crafts learned from commercial sign shops to create posters and public art for the government.
Q- Do you consider yourself prolific? Or is that difficult with this medium?
A- I can only say that I never seem to have enough time explore all my ideas because the work is so slow and physically demanding.
Q- How does the creative process work for you? Do you have a particular time of day or setting that you find most effective in which to work? Do you like to have music as background when you work? If so, what genre?
A-I always work with music on. My children are both musicians and I find a lot of inspiration from listening to music. I listen to many forms of music and particularly folk rooted artists like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. I am interested in how they evolved as artists and how they explored their creative identities.
Q- What do you consider your source of creativity to be?
A-The beauty of light effects on the natural world.Q-In the Boston Globe article, you spoke of prints, as opposed to some art, being accessible to people because they are more affordable. Can you elaborate on that thought please?
A-A traditional handmade print (not a commercially reproduced print) is generally a less expensive original piece of art generated on paper. People with moderate incomes have long decorated their homes with prints rather than paintings. It is in this way I consider prints more accessible to people of all social status.
Q-Speaking of accessibility, I assume when you were in school you never expected to have any of your art turn up on a debit card? What were your thoughts on that and what comments did you hear? What year was that? A-The card was created in 1997. It was kind of weird standing in line at the grocery store watching the person in front of me pay for their items with a piece of plastic decorated with my art. Many people told me they like the look of the card, so I guess at some level it was an artistic connection to the public.
Q- Bob Dylan once said that art should be where the people are: on the sides of buses, in rest rooms and other places, not necessarily locked away in a museum. Your thoughts?
A- Bob Dylan is one of our greatest artists. If Bob feels that way, I’d have to be inclined to agree with him!
Q- When was "Autumn in New Hampshire" commissioned?
A- "Autumn in New Hampshire" was done for the League of NH Craftsmen traveling exhibit in 1998. The print sold out quickly and was very popular.
Q- What year was your traveling exhibit at League of NH Craftsmen shops? And was it with "Autumn."? How many works were represented? A-The League chooses a different craftsperson each year to be featured in a traveling show to their retail shops across the state. I visited each shop for a small opening or craft demonstration. My work is available at all the League shops
Q-Was that a rewarding experience? What did you learn from it?
A-I enjoy the opportunity to talk with people about my artwork or crafts in general
Q-Where are some of places your work hangs?
A-My work is collected in many private and corporate collections across the country. I get particularly excited when I sell my work to appreciators from other countries. It’s a great sense of pleasure to imagine my work making folks happy far away.
Q-What are some awards/honors/recognition you have received that are most satisfying to you?
A-My college printmaking teacher James Mullen donated some holiday cards I created to the Smithsonian Museum a few years ago. I thought it was interesting that our lasting friendship lead my work to find a home at such a place. I am very excited about having The NH Charitable Foundation continually feature my artwork in their philanthropic efforts through brochures and other printed materials. I am also very happy with my recent commission with the NH Sierra Club,
Q- Many artists have told me that often their work speaks for them in ways that they cannot, or struggle, to verbalize. Can you relate to this? If so, can you offer some examples?
A-I try to have the work speak for itself. I am always willing however to enter discussion about it with patrons and friends.
Q- Do you enjoy exhibiting? Is it always a learning experience?
A-I do enjoy exhibiting my work, but I sometimes feel uncomfortable talking about it in public.
Q-Do you sometimes take something away from them that you can apply to your future work?
A-Not generally, my work is mostly generated by quiet moments by myself.
Q-Do you enjoy hearing comments from people who are viewing your work (especially if they do not realize you are listening?)?
A-Sure
Q- Do you prefer a one-man show over a group show?
A-No preference. I enjoy the work of others over my own in decorating my home. I enjoy appreciating the work of others.