billfeeney@sbcglobal.net
Born and raised in Quincy, Massachusetts, I received a BFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1985, and then moved to New York City to pursue my art career. In 1995 I received my MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara. I moved to North County San Diego in 1996 and have been living, working, and exhibiting here ever since. I taught one year post-graduate at UCSB and while in San Diego I taught part-time at Palomar, Cuyamaca, and Southwestern College. I worked in construction for over 20 years, I was a lifeguard for 35 years. In 2003 I received a California Arts Council Grant in the Visual Arts, and in 2007 I received the StartUP Award from the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. I was selected to the Djerassi Resident Artist Program in the fall of 2014. In 2016 I received The San Diego Art Prize from the San Diego Visual Arts Network. I have been selected to the Yaddo Resident Artist Program for the spring of 2019.
I’m an artist that tells parts of stories, sometime several at once, and hopefully I make an interesting object that gets people to interact with those parts and determine meaning for themselves. For me art making is visual poetry, in the sense that it brings disparate things into relation with one another in a way that create a larger meaning within the individual.
My work is about specific subjects; things that I am trying to figure out, or ideas that I am in the process of rethinking. I deal with the stuff of life; fear, joy, politics, relationships, misunderstanding, the lack of self-awareness. I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything, I am not in the business of advertising. What I am trying to do is construct a constellation of questions regarding a specific idea, that someone would be interested enough to take a moment out of their lives to consider. For me that is the definition of an art experience, and as an artist it’s my job to create the circumstances where that is possible.
I am not an artist that is dedicated to a specific material or process. I will use any means available in the service of the content of the artwork I’m trying to create. This may not be what other artists are doing, but it serves me well.