This Month in the Next Coffee Co. Gallery: The Art of Bill Manson

July 2009

Bill Manson’s paintings dance with color, energy, and a lilting, often playful fluidity that embodies the music that serves as one of his frequent subjects.

Manson’s background in music and in creating covers for jazz artists’ CDs is evident throughout his work. Lively, vibrant, and whimsical, seemingly propelled in motion, his paintings could be well-described as jazz-like — they carry an improvisational, kaleidoscopic quality, visual riffing caught on canvas.

Manson’s subjects, too, reflect this inclination for improvisation and perpetual, shifting motion. When he isn’t depicting musicians, instruments, or music itself, Manson is painting improvisers of a different sort: George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and other ad-libbing standup comic greats in his “Legends of Laughter”; Steve Nash, the Phoenix Suns point guard who must constantly act as improviser and director of motion on the basketball court; Einstein, pure intuitive genius, improvising theorist of motion at its most fundamental, the movement of particles through time and space.

Self-trained as a visual artist, Manson studied music performance at Grand Canyon University, then went on to build a professional background in graphic design and architectural signage. The bold palettes of his acrylics are often set off by accents of silver, copper leafing, and 24-karat gold.

Manson’s commissioned pieces include paintings of Elvis Costello and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. His paintings of Steve Nash have been donated to the Phoenix Suns Charities.

To view a gallery of Manson’s work, visit his website at www.billmanson.com.