Bill Love blends a background in graphic design with his freer artistic sensibilities
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which is an important part of his life.
But Love was an artist long before he was a designer, and his fam-ily
has always supported his talents.
“I’ve painted or drawn my entire life,” he says. “I have an aunt
who is a stage designer and painter and she definitely influences
me — she really got me started as a teenager. I was put in advanced
classes and went to Governor’s School for art; it was pretty ingrained
in me and by the time I got to college, it was already decided.”
Love’s technical skill is on display in works like “Ray,” an impressive
triptych featuring a manta ray in leisurely motion through an under-water
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by Kathryn Manis
GRAPHIC DESIGNER and illustrator by trade and edu-cation,
Bill Love’s passions include painting,
surfing, and spending time on the water.
Painting primarily in acrylics, Love merges
the influence of his occupation and interests
into a body of work that is bold, imaginative
and constantly evolving.
Love studied graphic design in college as a way to be creative in
a dependable career, and now runs a successful design business in
Wilmington. He also does a lot of work for the local surfing commu-nity,
seascape. The ray appears to move languidly while the sur-face,
visible above, churns with strong waves and aggressive move-ment.
The scene is rendered in captivating detail and one could
mistake it for a photographic image. Love masterfully depicts subtle
variations of blue and green affected by the sun reaching below the
ocean’s surface and the delicacy of water being pushed around and
behind the ray as it swims forward.
Love isn’t attached to any single style and describes his practice
as changing on an almost annual basis. But in many of his paintings,
the crispness necessary in his graphic design work influences the
final outcome.
“I tend to get tight even when I don’t want to be,” he says. “I’ve
been trying to force myself to get a little bit looser, with wider
brushstrokes, etc.”
Bill Love in his studio at work on a new painting titled “Churning
Sand.”
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