Kim BrattainFounder/ CEO, Kim Brattain Media · Award-winning Corporate and Documentary Film Producer

WILLIAM DUNLAP - "Geography Matters" Exhibit | Kim Brattain Media

9 Sept 2014 · 1 min

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1:14

In this spoken monologue, artist William Dunlap reflects on his creative process and philosophical stance. He opens with a classic philosophical riddle about perception, then argues that art must be active and public rather than hidden. He emphasizes his vivid recollection of personal and world events at the time of each painting, summarizing his approach as "hypothetical realism"—creating imagined places that feel plausible. Dunlap mentions reading William Faulkner extensively, acknowledging its influence on his work without apology. Throughout, he uses metaphorical language (e.g., "one leg, one wing") to convey the minimal essentials he believes sustain life and art.

Chapters

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody heard it, did it make a sound? You know, if art is in a closet, did any art take place? I think it needs to be out roaming and getting in trouble. Damn it, I can remember exactly what was going on in the world, what was going on in my life when I made these paintings. One leg, one wing, that's all a man needs to get through this life. I'd call what I do hypothetical realism. These places aren't real, but they could be. This says, if I can read my own hand, angry men reconsidered and judged to be still angry notwithstanding the passage of considerable time. Since I first became aware of their intolerable fury. I've obviously been reading a lot of Faulkner. And for that, I do not apologize.