Book Proposal

Book Proposal/It’s Just Paint

An Autobiography by American Artist William Armstrong

By Tammy Rako

In the year 1980, the same year Benedikt Taschen opened his comic book shop in Cologne, a diverse artist named William Armstrong appeared on the New York art scene, hanging out at the Artists’ Choice Museum (the “museum without walls”) talking about shifts in figurative painting with his contemporaries: Paul Georges, Alex Katz, George Segal, Marisol, Red Grooms, Elaine DeKoening, Alice Neal, Raphael Soyer, Fairfield Porter and others.

Fast-forward thirty years, a master scenic painter for the motion picture industry career under his belt, Armstrong realized an autobiography by an artist was seemingly unheard of. Sitting in his Savannah studio in 2010, he set to chronicling his life experiences from birth to present in uncensored, straight-forward form with personal accounts, historical events, photos, artwork and references to major working artists, unhinging the most intellectually-focused art student or afflatus-starved reader to say, “his life experiences made him the artist he is.”

Having no children, Armstrong sought to leave a legacy of the wild, wonderful, brutal world of a working artist by compiling his 2014 autobiography, It’s Just Paint. It’s not just an autobiography though, so how will it be categorized? It’s also a captivating story of a life riddled with abuse, neglect and overcoming obstacles. And it’s a door left purposely open offering the voyeur-minded a view into the amazing brain of a painter, sculptor and creator of magical scenes in major films. Name-dropping doesn’t interest him (but he could if he wanted to) so Armstrong tastefully shares stories of directors and actors he’s worked with in the film industry from Scorcese to Streisand.

It’s Just Paint may be tough to categorize but it’s equally tough to forget. It’s a story for anyone.