SMU artist speaks to South students

By Jackie Bushnell/reporter

Dallas artist Bill Komodore spoke to South Campus students Nov. 12 about finding the great artists within them.

Artists must be disciplined, Komodore said. Having universal knowledge is key for an artist as well as a human being.

“In order to become a good artist, you need to know a little bit of everything, as much as you can,” he said.

Komodore said reading books of every kind helps in the process of becoming a great artist. He said books that may be hard to understand will make for great progress in an artist’s journey.

“Reading things that one does not understand is very important,” he said.

Komodore said artists need to approach art the way the eye of the beholder sees it. Clichés do not need to be repeated, he said. Instead, artists need to find new ways of looking at art through the individual’s eyes. He said students should examine what is inside them, where the path leads and what to do with that path.

“Obey the voice inside of you,” he said.

Currently SMU’s art department chair, Komodore was born in Athens, Greece, and lived in New York before moving to Texas. His Sun Paintings are in SPAC Carillon Gallery through Dec. 6.