06 August 2021

Spotlight Today: Downtown Mesa Artist Bill Barnhart's Exalted 'Quonset Hut' / Workspace Studio + Gallery

Happy to go back-in-time - at least on this blog - to backtrack and consolidate earlier posts about one fine artist (and builder) Bill Barnhart who is away from town right now sailing along the coast of Maine on the east Atlantic Ocean, the Captain of his own ship.
From 2015
Your MesaZona blogger was particularly impressed with a report from April 16, 2015 about downtown artist Bill Barnhart, with an exhibition "Seattle Series" now on exhibit in the Mesa Contemporary Crafts Museum that runs until August 16th.
The New Urban Downtown Mesa is home to artists like Bill Barnhart who live and work downtown from a ‘work of art’ building that he created from scratch. It is located on Center Street just above University Drive on the west side. I've always wondered what that building was all about - it's his studio. 
Here's a 3:45 You Tube Video that was uploaded by the artist on January 18, 2012 of his new art studio that was built over two-and-half years. He says, "It was an amazing learning experience and a test of personal fortitude and determination to see the project to completion......well.....it is NEVER really complete," as he keeps adding new things to it - like the monumental sculpture installation in the left side in the front that was recently photographed.

 
Bill strives to make artworks that will lift, and inspire hearts and minds
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Meet Mesa Downtown Artist William Barnhart @ Mesa Arts Center
THE SEATTLE SERIES
William Barnhart
Current Exhibition
Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum  
Created in the summer of 2014, Mesa Arizona artist William Barnhart’s Seattle Series is a gorgeous collection of large-scale, high-color, oil-on-canvas paintings. Barnhart honors aquatic and aviary life in his inimitable style: wide strokes, bright vistas, deep movement. Made while the prolific, celebrated artist was sailing on Washington’s Lake Union on his beloved, restored sailboat, “Champion,” this new series interpret the sights, sounds and experiences of being alive.
Another post July 2017
Mesa Is The Most Conservative City in America: No Nude Public Art
Ever walk around the streets and sidewalks here in The New Urban Downtown Mesa with the one mission-in-mind to look at all the dark heavyweight collection of bronze sculptures dotting some intersections and standing in front of landmark legacy buildings from the City's past history? What kind of art are they - mediocre or high-quality? ...why are they here?
Do they tell some kind-of-a-story of their own?
Your MesaZona blogger will leave the answers to that question to your imagination . . .
There is one Giacometti-style larger-than-life NUDE PUBLIC ART piece in front of the downtown studio of downtown resident artist Bill Barnhart, shown in the featured image to this piece.It's from this website https://www.artsyshark.com/ back on April 17, 2013 that includes some really good words from Bill where he says, "My large oil paintings, monotypes, and bronze sculptures delve into matters of the universal human heart, such as love, joy, passion, beauty, kindness and hope"
To paraphrase Bill Barnhart, whom your MesaZona blogger has been acquainted with for a few years, his contemporary figurative artworks are an exploration of the drama, the emotional complexities, the mental and spiritual realities of this human experience we are suspended in.
Link to the artist's website > https://www.fineartist.com/
 

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