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: PRA IN Ss } gaits | Blackstock artist ~ financial stability '® The trouble with sculp- turer Bill Lishman of Black- stock is that he dashes a lot of illusions about success. "With customers like the Ford Foundation, the City of Baltimore, Maryland, and countless large industries and businesses, you'd expect the 36-year-old artist to be lounging in Law Vegas, tour- ing the world, or investing in 1 eeks real estate. But like most of us, Bill worries about making the mortgage payment, "In this kind of work, it's up and down," he said. TEER OANINIGE 21 60 0 XH REE Ae TA FATARY PE LY 4 «A LJ L 1 . AV RUS . ') i 4 Pe ; PATE snfv, ! ISR AA AEE SH PARRALE TREND EET Second Section Vol. 109 -- PORT PERRY, ONTARIO, Wednesday, February 26, 1975 -- No. 16 Xi. "There are no guarantees. You Soy feel a recession ns ing a good six months : before anyope else." - ' The beautiful, imagin- d ' "ative, and original work that he creates are sold mainley to corporations for office buildings. The first indica- : tion of tight money, a bus- a iness slowdown, or a shift in ; company policy, and it's the , - commissioned artist who 3 I \ gets the axe. And a fickle rol | ; : citizenry doesn't help matt- y { ers either, and artists have long had to contend with the \ \ fact that today's craze-art, or otherwise - can be tomor- row's flop. . $25,000, and the next year + you could go on welfare." He recalls times when the phone + was literally ringing off the wall with offers, and other times when eating was a problem. Now, a year after he moved to R.R. 3, Blackstock, from his expropriated home and studio in the Pickering airport area, Bill may have found the solution to the income fluctuation problem. Practical sculpture, he calls it, and if all the signs are right, the idea has pro- duced a winner. _ Called by many the most unique. new idea for the old-fashioned rocking chair, a new "design by Bill Lish- "man shows all thé promise of a good, stable marketable product. All the authorities on the subject agree that it will "go". Why hasn't it? "Money," said Bill. He's pumped about $12,000 into the project so far, but still has to keep his fingers crossed. : Tr Ei Si SE i A [dtd ---at WESTERN A RLY R. Metal-welded 'sculpture for Western Raceway in } London. ny SHE Wife, Paula and two-year-old son, Aaron, try out the unique new rocking chair designed and built by Bill Lishman. Called the most revolutionary concetp since the original rocking chair in many art and industry circles, Mr. Lishman hopes that production of the chair will follow, and with it, the financial stability to level out the economic dips and peaks. "One year you can make Bill Lishman of R.R.3, Blackstock, will be one of the many artists who will participate in a five-week-long exhibition at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa. The exhibition will feature atists of Durham Region, and is one of the longests In the institution's history. Mr. Lishman is an accomplished sculpture who has been commissioned in many centres across Canada. Above, he readies the furnace for some metal work. The exhibition started February 19. "You know the saying about oné per cent invention, and 99 per cent getting it going! I can verify that," said Mr. Lishman. "The banks seem to be waiting until they have you up against the wall, exhaust- ed," he said. "Holding out for a better deal." Bill's interest in sculpture begain unconsciously as a child of ten, when he always had a block of wood and a sharp knife in his hands. He later attempted an arts course at college, but the routine drove him out after six months. "I've never been able to relate to anything with regular hours." Bill smiles when he said it. His work now knows no schedule -- he works every day and a good portion of the day. From his first job as a jet-boat driver for an Ajax boating outfit to his-endea- vours now, he shows perhaps more of the adventurer, experimenter, and a touch of dry wit, like running in the federal election as the New Democratic candidate. He came to the conclusion that politics and art don't mix. "You have to be too darn insensitive," he said, adding that the riding was lucky he wasn't elected. "It would have been sheer dis- aster." In 1971, during what he described as one of the slumps, he began on a life- size, exact copy of the lunar lander. He completed the project two years later, with over $10,000 in materials alone invested in the piece. The lander was so well done (and considered by 'some more accurate than 'NASA. models) that Neil Armstrong's Ohio hometown asked him if he would donate it to a museum being estab- lished in the community for their favourite son. Bill turned them down. After two years of work and $10,000 invested, he wasn't prepared to give it away. He told them, however, that he'd sell it for a reasonable price. As yet, there've been no takers. He's not too sure that it bothers him, either. "I don't know if it was meant for a museum, anyway," he said. "I think it would look much better in an open field-- like it just landed. It would relate much more to people and the surroundings. Full-scale model of lunar lander: $10,000 and two years of work. "It would look best out THERE," he said, pointing through the picture window of the chalet-style house that overlooks over 100 acres of Lishman property. "Maybe it would lure a few of those UFO's here...."" He may even follow-on the original idea he had when he built the lander. The lander was to have included an astronaut on the ladder, one foot on the ground, and a huge pull ring on his back. Pull the cord and a voice repeats: "One step for man....." Another item of interest-- something he refers to as his toy -- is an office computer he received in a trade for a piece of art. Seated in the upstairs office of the $12,000 studio he built a year ago. Bill will enthusiastically slide open a bottom drawer of a desk, revealing a maize of circuits, keys, gadgets and wire. With a flick of the wrist on a connected 'type- writer, the gadget jumps into action, click-clagking like a hundred typewriters. "It feeds into the New York exchange," he smiles. "Keeps me informed of how my stock is doing: Actually, he doesn't quite know what he's going to do with it, but thinks he might encorporate it in some future work. a Re a ner é Eos Aw ha Ci Se ers