William Song presents a new series of resonant oil paintings that utilize color, light and depth to open multi-dimensional experiences beyond the conscious mind. Grounded in research about the capacity of visual information to effect change in the mind and body, these works aim to create energetic portals attuned to express connection, contemplation, spontaneity, and freedom.
Song’s passion for painting emerges from the unusual arc of his life in the seemingly divergent realms of intellectual discipline and intuitive consciousness. As a young child, Song spent hours of almost every day playing in a remote tract of forest – alone, open to the pure experience of nature’s balance and unity.
A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Song went on to become a nationally recognized lawyer in a complex specialty. But after a rare medical condition forced a shift in life, Song’s journey toward healing brought about several profound experiences in consciousness and energy. He re-focused on his lifelong love of painting and began exploring the ways that his art could affect environments and the people within them. “Nature remains a touchtone in my paintings because there’s a cohesion and depth to the quality of the energy, which is also possible within a human being, because we are nature, we are the earth” says Song.
Extended stays in Italy, Japan, India and New Mexico have deeply influenced Song’s work, such as the continuing Community Series, inspired by the Anasazi ruins of New Mexico – ancient communal living structures representing a deeply interconnected way of life. Song allows a meditative flow to guide the development of each painting, sometimes over a period of multiple years. He works primarily in oils, sometimes with the addition of cold beeswax medium which creates variance in thickness and sheen. Strong, textural palette knife work forms the foundation of most paintings, allowing the artist to build layers of color and texture, or scrape away paint, which he compares to a geologic excavation process that allows things to be uncovered, and a sense of hinting at the unseen.
Song’s work has been exhibited in galleries and public centers including ArtXchange Gallery, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle City Hall, Harborview Medical Center and the permanent collection of Oregon Health and Science University.
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