I started experimenting with abstract forms of visual art in 1972, as a result of art courses at the College of Staten Island and through an arts therapy program sponsored by the Veterans Administration. These opportunities afforded me time to study the works of accomplished artists. This investigation also assisted me in formulating several methods and techniques used in my works to enhance my visualization of potential subjects and in assembling the combinations of symbols and elements.
My work attempts to provide viewers with multiple visual symbols and signs that communicate my perspectives on selected social and political issues, affecting what Herbert Marshall McLuhan called our global village.
The images displayed in my work are subjective in their attempt to reflect and refine visual representations into whole units suggesting my view on selected issues. As discerned from a close inspection of the pieces on display, the recurring themes involve war, politics, isms, violence, religion, social protest, and love. I try to create forms of expression as objects designed to elicit discussion and reaction from the multi-imaged themes in the assembled work.
Biographical Sketch
Walter Robert Gholson, III, was born in Cape Charles, Virginia, in 1948. He has lived in Brooklyn and Staten Island, New York; Washington, D.C.; Silver Spring, MD; Lincoln, Nebraska and Chicago, Illinois. He currently lives in Philadelphia, PA. Between 1973 and 1991, Gholson attended the College of Staten Island, American University, Howard University, and the University of the District of Columbia. He received a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Nebraska in 1991. In 1999 he earned a Master of Education degree, and in 2004 a Doctor of Education degree in Educational Administration and Policy Studies from Temple University.