Girard, Art & Detroit: Snapshots of the Big Picture

The online publication, The Beautiful Home ,  recently published an essay about Bill Girard's personal residence . The article is accompanied with several lovely photos of the artist's home and some of the pieces, murals, sculptures, etc., that adorned it. As well as others. Find that article here:  https://the-beautiful-home.com/william-girard/ Unfortunately, it occurs to me that said article fails to reference a recurring theme in the artist's life: a theme that might provide a key to understanding the person, the work and the artist.  Consider that Girard Rejected the the option of a career in architecture (as urged by his father) in favor of a career dedicated to the creation of handcrafted objects (i.e. art) not unl ike one of the more noted advocates of the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris Studied (briefly, to be sure) at Detroit's Society of Arts and Crafts and later taught at the art college that it evolved into Created his personal, private palace...

Master of Mud (aka artist) and former Center for Creative Studies (CCS), Detroit,  professor of art, Bill (William J.) Girard Jr., passed away in 2011. The website created to honor him is found at  https://girardsvasari.com/ ------------------------------------------------------- Previously unreported Girard painting hits art market - and sells! RIMA, signed and dated Girard 1995, recently turned up in an online search courtesy of 1stDibs.com . Her past is a mystery. (RIMA doesn't seem to have been part of the Allen Abramson estate collection.) But her current status looks good as a happy Girard collector has reported reeling her in!   According to the the website: In "Rima" Girard has captured a beautiful red-headed female in a dreamy pose of closed-eyed contemplation. The figure appears to be completely self-absorbed without being closed-off to interior monologue and the decorative element about her head suggests the intensity of those thoughts. The green vine that drap...

Master of Mud (aka artist) and former Center for Creative Studies (CCS), Detroit,  professor of art, Bill (William J.) Girard Jr., passed away in 2011. The website created to honor him is found at  https://girardsvasari.com/ ------------------------------------------------------- Yeah, sure. Utterly unknown artist belongs to the aristocracy of art? Lucky if a  posthumous piece sells for $5000!  That's top dollar for a Girard these days.      That's not an editorial comment. It's bluster. Rhetoric. Build-up. Drum roll, please. Does young Girard look like any sort of aristocrat to you? Does old Girard look like any more of an aristocrat here? Ever heard the maxim, you can't judge an aristocrat by their wig? Oh, sorry. No wig in evidence.  Anyway, back in the day, former professor of art Bill Girard told me that some direct relative, a grandfather, great-grandfather, had been sent as a child from Scotland to Canada, with a nanny and a la...