Artist captures San Diego through the lens of time

By: PATRICIA MORRIS BUCKLEY - For the North County Times | Wednesday, November 28, 2007 2:45 PM PST ∞

As a lifetime resident of San Diego, Bill Mosley has seen vast changes in the city's landscape. As an artist, he's recorded those changes through his paintings.

Many of these paintings are currently on display at MiraCosta College's Kruglak Gallery. It's a wonderful opportunity for viewers to step back in time as well as catch up with San Diego today.

For instance, his multiple portraits of the view from Center City show the remarkable shift of development in the downtown area.

"You used to be able to see Coronado from the corner of Tiffany Towers," he said. "Now, half of the view in my first painting of the area doesn't exist anymore because of the building there. Now, you can't see the harbor."

Mosley's artistic roots date to the 1960s when he studied under photographer/artist John Baldessari, who taught him conceptual and technical aspects of recording an emerging cityscape through photographs. While studying for his master's degree at UC San Diego, Mosley honed his photography skills to document ecological and sociological changes occurring as the San Diego area developed rapidly in the 1970s and '80s.

Mosley began studying the changes in downtown San Diego in 1980 when he moved into a studio in Little Italy. His photographs eventually served as the basis for paintings and over the past two-and-a-half decades, he's watched San Diego transform from a quaint, villagelike neighborhood to a major business and residential corridor. "I watch them assemble the buildings with my camera," he said. "I might ride my bike downtown and see the formal opportunities of capturing the process."

In the early 1990s, he began adding aerial perspecives to his work.

"I was able to get on the roof of many of these buildings which led me to realize that these are now all new points of view or perspective. Taking a helicopter over the skyline just added another dimension to my understanding the vision of the city."

"In general, most artists paint their immediate surroundings ---- their view is connected to their subject matter," he said. "I was looking out the window. It's intriguing to depict views that are novel ---- a new perspective of how downtown looked."

Mosley has even left his window to capture the state of San Diego's architectural transition. For instance, a series on Lindbergh Field shows downtown from the perspective of the airport. To achieve a different view, he went up in a helicopter to find just the right angle.

These large works (many 6 by 8 feet) combine a variety of points of view, including the feel of abstraction combined with a realistic, representational feel. Using blocks of color, he creates the patchwork of a cityscape with brutal honesty and a precise eye. But his pieces also show a narrative flair, showing construction workers as they create new lines in the city skyline.

"I like to tell a story," he said. "I trained as a narrative painter in grad school. I've always been interested in the action of creating. My works are like looking at a cartoon strip. Look at any of my series and there's something happening. It's not just about location."

There are 40 to 50 works in this exhibit, including some that include the first rough sketch and the final piece.

"I wanted to show students the contrasts," said Mosley, who teaches art at Grossmont College. "I wanted them to see the process."

As far as he knows, Mosley says he's the only artist who has concentrated on depicting a changing cityscape with such thoroughness.

"There are so many ways to approach a city through painting," he said. "This is the way that interested me. It shows a city being made. Some of the works are new because the buildings didn't exist before. Some of the views aren't there anymore because of the buildings around them. These works show us how our cityscape occurred. It's a way to look at the city in a way that never existed before."

"San Diego in Perspective"

When: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; through Dec. 6

Where: Kruglak Gallery, MiraCosta College, 1 Barnard Drive, Oceanside

Admission: Free

Info: (760) 795-6657