Self taught/Outsider artist.
My Grandfather was a pro golfer and he was murdered...they never found his body. I resemble him greatly but never met him.
This created a massive rift within my family.
My best friend was an unbelievable painter, that could have surpassed Dali. She commited suicide at 18 by jumping off the high level bridge in the winter.
I saw her blood outline on the ice. This destroyed me.
These events from childhood and embracing great loss, the grief was too large to handle.
spiralling emotionally within I then became homeless.
Started drawing when I was homeless on the streets for 6 months in the mid 1990's. for a stint of time drew the derelict and disposed characters that I would meet along the way. Felt intense despair, sat in the railyard drunk and made writing books and sold them to make drawings and to drink my sorrows away....still could not escape the pain.
Sang poetry and sold little these little hand made writing books on the street for my first camera...an Olympus OM10.
Slept in alleyways and on old building rooftops.
Began having local shows in small cafes to sustain a home.
Painted in my basement and a garage and continued having local exhibits.
Broke up old fruit crates I found in my basement and made frames, recycled broken glass and used recycled paint to accomplish these shows.
Moved onto Piano and guitar and music shortly afterwards.
Planted trees up in the Northwest Territories and northern Canada for two years to make enough money to travel abroad for a year.
Began pastels and more ink work, poetry.
Taught myself traditional B&W and color photographic techniques and darkroom. Using Old rangefinders, polaroids, my hasselblad from 1975 and several mechanical Olympus cameras. I also use old movie lights from the 40's + various props from charity shops.
I Call my photography style illuminism....my painting style shifting...my drawing style manyeyes city.
my photo style is based on 5 theories of light....just a re-defined second and imagination...finding beauty when it graces...if it be drawing, painting, photography or song.
The heart is boundless.
....more details.
Francis A Willey was born in Alberta in July of 1969, the day that man first walked on the moon. A modern day renaissance man, Francis expresses his creative force through drawings, paintings, photography, ballads and poems. He is a self-taught artist who draws his inspiration from nature, the plight of people less fortunate and from a strong spiritual connection to the world around him. Francis’ extended travels through India and South-East Asia have added significant depth to his work as he lived in different monasteries and with local families throughout his journey. His first hand experience with the day-to-day lives of people with different values and beliefs sharpened his creative forces and his concern for the highly material values of North America.
In recent years, Francis’ energies are split between the two great loves of his life, his family and his art. Francis’ earlier works focused more on the darker sides of our culture but as he walks daily with his twin daughters, Francis looks for hope, opportunity and forgiveness in our world. A journey Francis made himself and from which he can empathize with the course of tears that each man lives through to find true love and happiness in his life.
Francis’ works are owned by private collectors throughout North American and Europe. Francis regularly performs his poems and ballads at various poetry readings in Canada.
Currently recording his first solo piano CD.
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