Bill Szarowicz, whose portraits and scenes are drawn with a “seeing hand”, uses masterful strokes of charcoal to evoke space, separate dark from light, and tell the unique story that inspires him to create each piece.

Bill was drawn to the contrast between light and dark as a child, when he began copying images of the Sistine Chapel from one of his mother’s books. Michelangelo was his first “teacher” followed by masters such as Vermeer, whose influence can be seen in many of Bill’s drawings. “I drew on anything I could find,” Bill says, “including the back of an old roll of wallpaper…”

Born in Chicago, but raised on a farm in Arkansas, Bill left home at the age of thirteen to begin his education in a private school where he studied Latin, German and Greek. Although he continued to pursue his love of art, he decided that God had called him to be a missionary. After graduating with a master’s degree -- his thesis title was “Resurgence of Visual Arts in the Worship Service Between 1960 and 1969” – he was commissioned as a missionary-at-large to Spanish-speaking people in Mexico and Central America, where he utilized his artistic skills in his ministry designing banners, sanctuaries and stained glass windows for several churches. He began a child development program for preschoolers from low income families. He also worked with disadvantaged youth and was recognized for this work in “Personalities of the South” in 1974. In 1976, he served with Lutheran World Relief, helping to resettle Vietnamese refugees whose families were already residing in the United States and making it their home. This work took him to New Orleans, where many of the immigrants came before being reunited with their families in other parts of the country.

In New Orleans, Bill found a city teeming with music, live theater, and above all, artists drawing and painting in Jackson Square in the famous French Quarter. Inspired by his surroundings, Bill returned to his first love – drawing. He opened his own gallery, New Orleans Images, in the French Quarter where he sold his own works as well as paintings by other local artists, who were his teachers and friends. These relationships helped Bill to grow in his own art and business for the next 25 years.

On August 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Bill fled the city and began his journey to the mountains of Western North Carolina. He later returned to his home, only to find he didn’t have a home to return to. His gallery was still there, but with no housing and New Orleans in crisis, he decided to close his business and return to North Carolina, taking with him the remains of his gallery -- his collection of New Orleans images. He was determined now to pursue his drawing full time.

Bill now resides in Redwood City, California, after a few years in Black Mountain, North Carolina. There he spends his time drawing. Graphite and charcoal have become his preferred mediums, although he continues to work occasionally in pastel and watercolor. “There’s just something in drawing that says what art is all about: the contrast between light and dark. And what better way to express that than with graphite or charcoal. “And thanks be to God,” he adds, “I’m doing my best work now.”