January 2012 Issue

Bill Amundson

"The Promised Land"

38"h by 46"w. Pencil/Colored Pencil

of "The Promised Land," Bill Amundson writes ... "I really wanted to draw a kind of convoluted, abstract tree, the way I used to as a kid. That was my original incentive for this piece. And since I was now working in the same basement that I used to draw in as a kid, the timing seemed pretty good. I decided to put it into a sort of riotous, somewhat medieval setting, similar to many of the landscape drawings of Peter Breugel. In fact, some of the figures are taken directly from Breugel.  I decided the landscape should depict a sort of apocalyptic future, where only dollar stores and IKEA's existed.  All the little mutant, creaturelike figures, again derived from Breugel and Bosch, are named after legitimate IKEA products.  I sort of thought of this drawing as my version of the Mike Judge film IDIOCRACY. So I guess the title is a tad ironic.  I drew in my default, obsessive doodling style that I used as a kid as well.  I may tackle the same subject matter again in a more traditional pictorial manner in the future."

For more about Bill Amundson's art, read our interview with the artist here.

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____Bill Amundson graduated with a BS Degree in Art from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1975. Since then he has had over 40 solo shows and  been included in about 100 group shows throughout the United States and Canada. He relocated to Wisconsin in 2010 after over 35 years of living in Colorado.His work is available through the Plus Gallery and viewable, with commentary, at Open Museum.