Baker Artist Portfolios

William Mack earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1974, a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 1978, and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 2009. After earning his BFA but before attending graduate school in Madison, Mack spent a year working for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as an Artmobile Curator. During that year he traveled across the state of Virginia with exhibitions from the museum's permanent collection, displayed in a specially designed tractor-trailer, lecturing to students at school assemblies and the museum's affiliated member's groups. After completing his graduate degree Mack settled in Baltimore where he accepted a position teaching a variety of art subjects including Painting, Drawing, Photography, Lettering, Design and Life Drawing to high school students at the Park School. He taught art there for 24 years before leaving to go to law school. After earning his J.D. degree, he practiced Family Law for 8 years before retiring to paint in his law office/studio.

Mack's paintings begin with observed points of interest. Though fairly representational, the work is not devoted to "realism", but more usually interested in the glinting light dancing on the surface of glass, or flowers, or faces. He often is as involved in the play of shadows on a surface or the subtle shifts of color as to what might seem from a distance like a devotion to realism or the truth of a thing. Compositions harken back as much to the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock as to the figurative realism of Philip Pearlstein, or, to the expressive realism of David Hockney. The hope is to reward careful observation with fresh insight for the artist and the viewer.