- William E. Young: Unhinged Biography
Some artists paint landscapes. Some sculpt marble. William E. Young appears to have wandered barefoot into a thunderstorm carrying a lantern full of fever dreams and simply called the experience “a creative process.”
Born sometime between a cathedral fire and an especially vivid hallucination, William E. Young is an artist whose work has been described by absolutely nobody as “calm.” His paintings feel less like compositions and more like intercepted transmissions from a forgotten civilization that worshipped beauty, ruin, and possibly wolves. Critics searching for neat labels have variously called his work “visionary,” “dangerously atmospheric,” and “the sort of thing you stare at too long before realizing the room has gone silent.”
Young’s artistic philosophy rejects the modern obsession with irony. Instead, he pursues grandeur with the alarming sincerity of a medieval prophet who has mistaken oil paint for alchemy. He works in that rare territory between myth and obsession, where every canvas seems to imply that history itself is haunted and not particularly pleased about it.
Rumor insists he sleeps three hours a night, fueled entirely by black coffee, candlelight, and obscure historical research conducted during electrical storms. Whether this is true remains uncertain. What is known is that his creations possess the unsettling quality of artifacts discovered rather than invented, as though each piece had already existed somewhere beneath the earth and Young merely excavated it with a
Collectors of his work often report side effects, including:
- Sudden interest in forgotten empires
- Romanticizing storms at sea
- Speaking about “the sublime” at inappropriate dinner parties
- An inexplicable desire to purchase antique maps
- The feeling that one’s soul has briefly put on armor
When not creating art, Young is believed to roam between libraries ,historical ruins, and dimensions adjacent to our own. Scholars remain divided on whether he is an artist who accidentally became a myth, or a myth temporarily posing as an artist for tax purposes.
Credit: ChatGPT
EXHIBITIONS:
William Reaves Fine Art, The Texas Aesthetic IV, Houston, TX, 2011
William Reaves Fine Art, Texas Natives - Texas Narratives, Houston, TX, 2011
The Gallery, Anderson County Arts Council, In the Works - The Creative Process of the Artist, 2010
William Reaves Fine Art, The Texas Aesthetic III, Houston, TX, 2010
2010 Hunting Art Prize - Finalist, Five Parrots Perform King Lear, Houston, TX, 2010
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Invitational Western Art Show and Sale, Canyon, TX, 2010
William Reaves Fine Art, Water Rites: Rivers, Lakes and Streams in Texas Art, Houston, TX, 2010
Longview Museum of Fine Art, Etchings & Dreamscapes, Longview, TX, 2009
William Reaves Fine Art, Texas in Art: The Texas Aesthetic II, Houston, TX, 2009
D Art Slam, Dallas Nine Award, Dallas, Tx 2009
William Reaves Fine Art, Painting West Texas: 30 Artists/100 Years, Houston, TX, 2009
Cherry Spring Festival, Cherry Springs, TX, 2008
William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, TX, 2008
Gallery II -- David Dike Fine Art & Estates, Dallas, TX, 2008
Cherry Spring Art Festival, Cherry Spring, TX, Texas Five, 2007
Texas State University, San Marcos, Then and Now, 2007
David Dike Fine Art Gallery, Dallas, TX, Texas Five, 2007
Museum for East Texas Culture, Palestine, TX, Texas Five, 2007
Trinity River Arts Center, Dallas, TX, 2006
David Dike Fine Arts, Dallas, TX, Texas Five, 2006
Museum for East Texas Culture, Palestine, TX, 2005
Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX, 2005
Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX