It is Keizer Art Association's privilege and distinct pleasure to honor John Bilinowich as our Artist of the month. Bill is an accomplished and recognized photographer, and valued member of Keizer Art Association.

Artist's Statement

I started taking pictures in the '70s. I was in the army and living in Germany. Traveling around Germany and other parts of Europe at 18 (in itself) was exciting. I bought my first camera there (and a lot of film) and started shooting everything I saw. I turned the film in to be developed and anxiously waited for it to be processed. Out of all the rolls I turned in, less than half were worth keeping. So, in order to save money, I started becoming more selective in what I shot, but still ended up tossing over half.

Fast forward 40 years; a friend gave me her old Fuji DSLR when she bought her new mirrorless camera. I did nothing with it for over a year. Then covid... My wife went to live with our son and son-in-law for almost a year. After a while,I had become so bored that I took that DSLR to Astoria and started shooting. As I now had a digital camera, I found I didn't need to be as selective. When I got home, I plugged my memory card into the computer and started scrolling. I still found myself "deleting" most shots, but it was so liberating because I wasn;t spending money in doing so! In my subsequent outings I started taking multiple shots - using multiple settings and angles, of subjects that interested me. I still deleted most of them but what I started seeing were pictures that I really liked and would find myself going back and revisiting.

I have many shots that I really like, But having had no formal training in photography, I never considered my work to be worthy of showing. It was my wife (Kelli) who pushed for me to do something with my pictures. I started by donating some framed works to several women's shelters in the Portland area. These were for decoration, or for those who stayed at the shelters to take with them.

I shoot for me. I view myself as - not an artist - but as someone who stops time. When I take my camera out for a walk, I immediately start looking for colors and shapes that interest me. Then I start asking myself "how can I shoot this to best capture it in a way that will make it interesting and worth looking at over and over. If I can't find a way, I move on. I am now appreciative that others who view my pictures are drawn into what I see and appreciate my perspective as well.

Since that first trip to Astoria, I've shot with six different cameras; two phone cameras, two point and shoot pocket cameras, The Fuji DSLR and my Nikon mirrorless. I've shown pictures and have won awards with one phone camera, one point and shoot, the Fuji and the Nikon. As I was once told "it's not what you shoot with. It's what you shoot.

You can see John's art in the KAA Gallery throughout the month of July