LOOK & LISTEN: Art about photography

MEDIA: Painting, drawing, photography, video

BEST KNOWN FOR: Making drawings and paintings about photography. Willome said his art explores his ideas about photographic imagery and our experience with it.

“I get kind of philosophical about it,” Willome said. “I'm kind of a nerd about it.”

Part of his series “Evangelical Body-Sense” involves painting and drawings that deal with photography. For that series, Willome first took a board and carved into the face of it, like you would with a woodcut. He rubbed charcoal into the carved area. He then dropped the board on paper, causing an explosive-like charcoal residue to stain the paper. Like a photograph, Willome said his charcoal measured a particular moment in time.

“It parallels the instance of making a photograph with the instance of an explosion,” Willome said.

Photography, like other art forms, can be conceptual or used to express ideas.

“The language of photography is specialized,” Willome said. “The time issue is where I cross over a lot.”

Through its history, photography also developed the formal language of other arts, such as use of line, color and shadows.

“You can make a strong argument that photography emerged from painting,” Willome said. Their intermingled history is why Willome likes to mix the two.

CURRENTLY: The concept of proprioception has been soaking in Willome's mind for the past decade. He's exploring it in his new exhibit “Extensions,” which combines paintings about photography and two videos.

What is proprioception? It's a sense where we perceive our inside world — our bodies — instead of one that we use to perceive the outside world (touch, taste, etc.).

Think about it this way: Close your eyes and grab your knee. Now touch your ears. Now try and feel for something else nearby, like a computer mouse or coffee mug. Most likely, you won't be able to find it as accurately as a part of your body.

“We've taken this object and extended ourselves into it in a way that personalizes it,” Willome said.

Willome likes to think about how proprioception feeds into our sense of self, and how we link ourselves to experiences we didn't have (photos we saw in a newspaper) or items that aren't a part of our bodies (the cars we drive), to even evangelical religion or beliefs that we eternalize.

“I'm really fascinated by that idea of extending yourself into something,” Willome said.

BACKGROUND: Willome recently worked as an assistant professor of drawing and painting at the University of Hawai'i at Mânoa, but he moved back to San Antonio to be closer to his wife. He received his bachelor's of fine art from the UT-Austin in 2000. He received his master's from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2003.

WEB SITE:  www.Jawil.net

CHECK HIM OUT: “Extensions,” one of the Fotoseptiembre USA exhibits, will be on display through Nov. 13 at the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center. Gallery hours are noon-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and noon-8 p.m. Thursday. For more information, call (210) 227-6960 or visit bluestarart.org.

Emily Messer | 210SA contributor