interview with william day

William Day is an American painter known for his large-scale compositions of colorful shapes and energetic marks. Now living in Boulder, Colorado, Day can often be found in his studio working on multiple pieces at the same time. His process leads him to create paintings in a series, each one focusing on different nuances of the human experience. His works are comprised of textures and complex layers demonstrating his interaction with a canvas in a moment. These series of paintings – WATER, HEALING, NOIR, WONDER, MIDLIFE, AWAKENING, and ARCHITECTURAL – all nod to certain periods of Day’s life that bring years of intensity, joy, spirituality, conflict and resolution to the canvas.

 Day begins each new work by rolling unprimed raw canvas out on the floor. Primarily working with oil and acrylics, he uses different tools and techniques to manipulate the interaction with the material. After September 11th 2001, when Day’s wife Aimee, survived the collapse of the World Trade Towers, Day left a career in finance and studied architecture at PRATT Institute, which ultimately lead him to becoming a painter.

His work has been published in LUXE Magazine, FORBES.com, and has been a TEDx Speaker. His art is featured in both private and public collections throughout the world.

 your greatest inspirations or influences?

 Some of my greatest inspirations are from my mother who always encouraged me to find the creative spirit in everything we did, and my father who taught me to think big, open my eyes to explore how to solve problems and not limit myself.  My children and my wife, Amy, are also my inspiration. Amy always believed in my abilities to paint and encouraged me to pursue my true calling in life. Some my greatest influences in art stem from the abstract expressionist movement in the 1950’s such as Pollock, Motherwell, De Kooning, and Helen Frankenthaler.

I also regard the impressionist period as having a very important impact on my art. The Renaissance, influences my work as well; a time of rebirth encourages intensive innovation and brings forward artists such as Botticelli, Michael Angelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, who mastered creativity and innovation. They challenged the way people saw and interacted with the world through inventions, creativity, art, and science, through endless energy of exploring to discover something new and different in the world around them. 

Tell us a bit about your creative process? Work you are most proud of, things you are looking forward to in 2021?

 My creative process is really about showing up, pushing beyond myself, and knowing that there is no right way to let the creativity flow. The process is about clearing your mind from your expectations about what you think you want a body of work or painting to be. The process is very raw and somewhat intimate. Learning how to get out of your head and work from your heart. The process every day is something new and different, learning how to get out the way and let go of your ego, you will be amazed at what comes through and that’s where the discoveries really happen.

 When I walk over the canvas I also like to explore and use different tools, sticks, drawing rollers, I love painting large so my process starts with a very open-ended conversation in my mind and then I start to play and it speaks to me. In the end, the process is different for each painting, each one is unique and saying something different to the viewer. You allow that freedom to happen. Don’t be afraid to change your process for each painting, each body of work. You learn how to step out the way and let that creative energy flow out of you.

How has this year changed your creativity?

This year has changed dramatically every aspect of my life.  This pandemic has allowed for a reset. At the beginning, I came back to my studio took everything off the walls. I needed my studio to breathe. I sought to approach my paintings in a new way by embracing what was happening around me, and have a silver lining of things to come. I wanted to start over. So that’s what I did.

 I wanted to look at my creativity from a fresh new set of eyes. I wanted to get out of the way of all the noise because I was angry, scared and fearful. Basically I was paralyzed. I had a shift in thinking. I realized I am not going to let these negative forces block my path to creativity. I am going to understand it, be respectful, and move forward in a way to see the light, go towards the future, and find hope.

There is always negativity everywhere but I aspire to find my purpose.  At the same time, there is sadness, depression, and uncertainty. I see this as a very influential moment in history. Because  we can now begin to shed layers from our past and shed all expectations, negativity, misinformation, and start seeing the world in a brighter light that can bring innovation, creativity, and love that has been suppressed. It is a time to act. We have been afraid, but when we are ready we must break out, learn to be with the world again, and that is what I wanted to do with my paintings. I shifted; we all needed to shift, and reset.

 Anything else you'd like to share? 

 I am excited for what the future has in store. We need to be empathetic for those around us who don’t have the same vision and really learn to connect with others that may not have the same source of hope. We seek a similar purpose, love, family, and community, to create a world to pass on to the next generation, and do something even better. This journey is not always fun or easy and I think it is up to us as individuals of every nation to take the call of action for what we are meant to do and be the light, the solution, for what the future can hold. Art does that, paintings allow for that dialog to occur.

all photos by Michael Ash