About the Book
Chasing Dragons tells the story of one artist's quest for self-discovery and new modes of expression-inspiring the same spirit in his subjects and all those who encounter his work. Presented here is a stunning visual autobiography, chronicling more than five decades of artistic vision. In this impressive, autobiographical tour de force, artist Bill Hayward presents more than five decades of visual artwork alongside his own personal narrative-his musings on childhood experiences, moments of epiphany, and the fragments of literature that have inspired him along the way. Arranged in five acts, Chasing Dragons: An Uncommon Memoir in Photographs traces the evolution of Hayward's work-from traditional portraiture to increasingly abstract and altered images, figurative paintings, dance, performance, and film.
About the Author :
Artist Bill Hayward works in a diverse array of media, including photography, film, painting, music, sculpture, and dance. In all cases, Hayward's work is primarily inspired by the drama of living forms. To these ends, his work explores the human body - its outward appearance and innermost feelings - often entering territories of vulnerability and emotional risk. Hayward's work has been exhibited in galleries and performance centres across the United States, as well as in France and Germany, including Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College (Allentown, Pennsylvania), Fashion Night Out (New York City), Center for Performance Research (Brooklyn, New York), The Wynwood Art Fair and The Art Live Fair (Miami, Florida), The Tribeca Grand (New York City). Hayward is co-founder of The Maine Photographic Workshops (now the Maine Media Workshops), wherein he taught Master Class Workshops in portraiture and the creative process. He has also taught Master Classes at the International Center of Photography (New York City), YC; Palm Beach Photographic Workshops (West Palm Beach, Florida), and the Art Kane Photo Workshops (Cape May, New Jersey). The artist's previous books of photography include Cat People (Doubleday, 1978) and Bad Behavior (Rizzoli, 2000). Hayward lives and in works in New York City and Montana.
Review :
Chasing Dragons: An Uncommon Memoir in Photographs by Bill Hayward tells the story of one artist's quest for self-discovery and new modes of expression, tracing the evolution of photographer Hayward's work from traditional portraiture to increasingly abstract and altered images, figurative paintings, dance, performance, and film. -- Annie Coreno Publishers Weekly, June 19, 2015 One of the beauties of Chasing Dragons (hunting the dragon smoke of the imagination) is (going back to the patterning, grouping, repetitiveness of the images) that you can see Hayward, the artist, thinking without words, thinking with the images themselves, making and remaking, with slight variation, the same gesture, scene, idea. The effect is mesmerizing; rarely do you get to see so many materializations of the same artistic thought. -- Douglas Glover Numero Cinq, October 2015 Uncommon it is, and beautiful, and quite possibly the first of its kind. Chasing Dragons documents in photographs, paintings, and film stills, Bill Hayward's evolution over five decades from portrait photographer to abstract painter, filmmaker, and multimedia artist. -- Stacey Harwood Best American Poetry
