William Tiemann 
This is That
December 5 - 30, 2003

William Tiemann is an award winning artist from Saint Louis, Missouri that has come to San Antonio, Texas seeking a master’s degree in printmaking. He is currently attending the University of Texas at San Antonio and has a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in Printmaking, from Webster University in Saint Louis, Missouri. Since moving to Texas William’s main focus has become digital printmaking. William was named the, "2003, Texas Emerging Artist", by the Kerrville, Arts and Craft Festival and his professors nominated him to represent UTSA at the annual print selection for the fall funds raiser at the McNay Art Museum. One of Tiemann’s digital prints was chosen by the "Friends of the Mcnay", for their 2003 print purchase award and that print was then auctioned off at the Mcnay’s fall fund raiser in November of 2003.
William’s main focus in "This Is That", is his unique attention to his process of creation and its’ aspects of visual beauty. For William the experimentation with process yields worlds of abstract imagery which contain a congruent visual aspect throughout his compositions. This visual aspect is achieved by using only one mark for each composition and repeating that mark throughout the entire composition. William seems to challenge you as the viewer to find his initial mark, which in some cases is virtually impossible but in others it only takes a visual investigation and deductive reasoning.
As an artist William has been classically trained in printmaking. It is the idea of printmaking that drives his visual investigations. With his expanded perception of mark making, William confronts the idea of how marks are created and what a mark can be. For him the computer opens the realms into which we as a society are all part of, a digital society. William’s focus on digital is an undertaking that he feels will drive future generations of artists.
William states, "The exploration that we do now only sets forth the foundations for which future generations of artist will build upon. Here we sit at the edge of the digital frontier staring into it and asking ourselves, What is it? When it, is us, and we are the generation with the responsibility of defining how the future adapts to what it is that we defined as; what digital art was to us."
Williams statement challenges and confronts the idea of what we as a generation will leave behind for future generations to build upon. William admits that the past is present in his digital prints. If you look at one of William’s digital prints you will notice the "all-over" type composition used by Jackson Pollock. In digital printmaking, William orbits around the picture plane just as Pollock walked around the canvas. Another aspect of his images that relates to the past is the idea of process. When you confront Tiemann’s work you may initially notice a lifeless methodical process at first glance but upon closer investigation you may realize that his process has a life of its’ own. The artist attributes the process investigations in his work to John Cage, and Sol LeWitt, once again bringing the past into the present.