About the Artist

Hi I'm Bill, born and raised in Chicago. Educated in part (not sure which part) by the Christian Brothers. I retired from Amoco Corp. in the mid '90's. For a retirement gift my daughter bought me watercolors. I began painting and drawing. A year or so after retirement a former teacher from St. Mel H. S. Brother Edwin Du Pree' called and asked if I would help a couple of young Christian Brothers who had begun a school in the Back of the Yards area of Chicago. The two young Brothers Gordon Hannon and Ed Siderewicz, filled with the zeal of De La Salle, had opened the San Miguel School at 48th and Damen (the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago) for underserved kids. Their vision was a Jr. High which utilized state of the art technology to help children accelerate learning. My job was to manage the technology. With the aid of friends (namely Harold Fisher) several years later the (now) two schools had the platforms to achieve this goal. Those platforms included several local area and virtual networks, hundreds of workstations, countless peripherals, T1 circuits, and state of the art software. The schools were off and running and became very successful.

In the interim the good brothers discovered I dabbled in art and so just as I had become their technology guy I became their art teacher (right brain, left brain, no brain). Brother Edwin, by this time working at the school, demanded a new piece of art each week for the community house at 48th and Damen. Thus began a journey. Before I knew it I was knee deep in pastels, watercolors, acrylics, drawings, scratch art, and stuff. Literally hundreds of pictures, most given away.

Then a heart problem and severe stenosis of the spine put an end to both the teaching and technology endeavors (I now hold the position of official volunteer landscaper in charge of a few schools, heart and stenosis be damned). Though my physical problems caused me to loose my ability to do large pieces I continued to paint Christmas cards. These were sent to family and friends each year. Last year one of my Christmas Madonna's made it's way to the Sisters of St. Joseph Art Colony in LaGrange. They are known as the Ministry of the Arts (MOTA). My new BFF Flo Christiano, Director of Arts, asked to see some of my works. Liking what I had done it was decided by the MOTA folks to include 12 or so of my works in their catalogue their fall catalogue. I was very flattered. It was suggested I create a contact point in case someone might be interested my work....... so this is my entry into the world of internet art sites. Where it goes from here I have no idea .....

A special thanks to my good friend Paul Dell for helping me build this web site. That's like Henry Aarons brother Tommie thanking him for helping set the combined home run record. Paul and I typically spend a couple of days a week driving thru Chicago in a truck, laughing and delivering food for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. We've been volunteering since Pauls retirement from Amoco/BP some 10 years ago. When I told him of my art quest he offered to help, I think his arm will heal someday. Paul had been kind enough to build a web site for the Brothers and now is leading this BillEngelsArt endeavor. It should be noted my grand daughter Lauren,

I hope you enjoy my works. They are what they are. The joy of the journey is where the pleasure lay, just as it is with life..............Bill