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Bill Christiian Scrimshaw |
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Bill Christian, American (1924 - 2004) |
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Christian’s given name was William John Bekins. He was born on May 30, 1924, in Pasadena, California. He died on April 2, 2004 in Hale Makua, Kahului, Hawaii. Bill led an active and multi-faceted life as an artist, writer, photographer, and many other occupations. He resided in several locations throughout his life including California, Louisianna, Hawaii, Illinois, Texas, Belize, Honduras, and Tahiti. An avid traveler, Bill visited every state in the United States. He served in WWII and was in Africa, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Luxemburg, Spain, and throughout the United Kingdom. After the war, he married Charlotte Dolsen, and together they had a son and two daughters. Before becoming an artist, Bill worked at a succession of jobs including executive for a trucking company, a private detective, and a commercial fisherman. He owned a bar, raced motorcars, and flew crop-dusters. Throughout these years, he drew pictures and sketched images of daily life. Sometime the 1950’s, Bill lost an eye for reasons undisclosed. His self-portraits show a grizzled man with a long beard, a captain’s hat and an eye patch. His wife, Charlotte died in 1959, after which he studied for a short time at the Art Institute of Chicago. Then he began traveling again, taking on odd jobs including selling encyclopedias, taxi driving, and washing dishes. His mental health was unsteady and eventually Bill was committed to the Veterans Hospital for the Insane in Waco, Texas. He was diagnosed a schizophrenic with homicidal and suicidal tendencies. He remained at the hospital for three months and then was transferred to the Fort Worth Public Health Hospital which was a maximum-security institution. During that time, he took art lessons via mail from a company called the Famous Artist School of Westport, Connecticut. He had a natural gift for art and soon was accomplished enough to teach art to the other inmates. Upon his release from the institution, the Texas Rehabilitation Clinic helped Bill find work as an artist with the Daily Advertising Agency and the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts. He also received commissions to create murals for clubs, hotels, and restaurants in the Dallas Fort Worth area. In the 1960’s Bill moved to the French Quarter in New Orleans where he lived for fifteen years. During that time, he studied art at Tulane University and often travelled to Central and South America, and the Caribbean. In the 1970’s he moved to Hawaii and studied art and oceanography at the University of Hawaii and at Maui Community College. During these years he enjoyed diving, painting, creating scrimshaw on slate and traveling to islands in the South Pacific. Many of Bill Christian’s scrimshaw works of art were lost in the 2023 Lahaina fire. The art of Bill Christian is or has been exhibited and/or offered for sale in museums, galleries, auction houses, and through independent art dealers including but not necessarily limited to the following: |
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