AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

http://www.largedarkshape.com

William Mitchell was born in the early part of 1960 to two educators in Phenix City, Alabama. In 1976 he attended Auburn University, majoring in commercial art, learning to paint and design while also maintaining a strong interest in English Literature. In the 1980s at California State University Long Beach his interest in drawing student dancers eventually led to his MFA exhibition entitled "People Who Dance".

After graduation he began working for a small independent publisher in Long Beach. Eventually economic necessity led him to move to Los Angeles and join the 9 to 5 professional world in downtown LA, where on a temporary basis he held most of the jobs recommended in his article. He also worked as a freelance illustrator, with the available work fluctuating between robust and lean.

During this time he showed paintings at The LA Dance Alliance, The Barnsdall Arts Center, and a MOCA staff exhibition. Later he found work at the LA Weekly, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the defunct LA Herald Examiner, before settling in for a decade-long career at Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios in an office position that made full use of his good memory and excellent typing skills. During this time, employing the Studio's resources, he self-published a score of magazines and authored/ produced two plays, "Test Subject" and "Tales of Suspense", which were presented as part of the Downtown Arts Development Association festival. He then returned to a career as a full-time commercial artist and has gained enormous satisfaction from collaborating on storyboards, posters, and production illustrations with over fifty talented filmmakers. He also manages three properties for a real estate company and for a noted LA based photographer. An enthusiastic self-organizer, he fancies himself equally iconographer and iconoclast.

Currently William Mitchell lives alone, just like everyone else in Los Angeles.

To the readers of his article (in AMP's May newsletter), he offers these final words of advice: "Believe in your own abilities, and never ever give up. Just because you haven't succeeded yet doesn't mean you never will. You haven't really failed until you quit trying."

Photograph of William Mitchell by Gary Leonard - http://www.takemypicture.com