William Ishmael-Wholeness and Fragmentation

August 25 to October 28

“…to some extent, it has always been both necessary and proper to man, in his thinking, to divide things up, and to separate them, so as to reduce his problems to manageable proportions …   .. the notion that all these fragments are separately existent is evidently an illusion, and this illusion cannot do other than lead to endless conflict and confusion.”  from David Bohm, physicist, in “Wholeness and the Implicate Order”

William Ishmael has been an artist for the last 30 years, beginning with watercolor landscapes and progressing to large abstract works and art installations utilizing latex paint, sand,  active rusting on steel plates, organic materials, and the natural elements of the weather to achieve the weathered, multilayered effects on many of his works.  

William has exhibited widely including multiple shows in Sacramento, as well as galleries in Palm Springs and Lexington, Kentucky.

William’s accomplishments include being named Sacramento Art and Business Council’s “Artist of the Year” for 2011 and, in 2014, having his 9 foot by 12 foot work “Wholeness and Fragmentation” accepted by SMAC for permanent installation in the Sacramento County Administration Building.

All of the works are an effort to convey that sense of the wholeness being broken up into fragments… fragments which are beautiful in their own right, but can readily be seen in a larger context, and have greater meaning as a result. 

The steel plates, the mirrored surfaces, as well as the sets of smaller canvases constituting a larger picture all intended to raise the awareness of this thesis in the viewers mind.