 | S. Victor Whitmill was born in 1966 in Northern California. Due to his artistic, Navy enlisted father, Whitmill was introduced to both a variety of cultures and art styles at a very young age. As a child, Whitmill was influenced by his father, classical masters and contemporary fantasy painters.
In high school, Whitmill was presented with the Bank of America Achievement Award in the field of art. Additionally, he was voted best artist by the graduating class of his high school.
Although Whitmill was denied financial assistance for college, he continued working to perfect his skill. He picked up art jobs when he could, painting banners for local bands and airbrushing t-shirts and the backs of leather jackets. It was during this period that Whitmill developed an interest in tattooing.
He saw it as an opportunity to make art and get paid. But during that time, it was extremely difficult to get into the business. It was many years later that he finally made his way in.
After getting into the business, Whitmill traveled the country attending tattoo conventions. Over the years, Whitmill’s tattoo work has won him many awards and has piqued the attention of the tattoo magazines. He has been featured in some of the most well known tattoo magazines in the country, including Tattoo and Skin and Ink.
Whitmill’s dedication to creating artistically engaging tattoos has garnered respect from the tattoo industry and his clients. It is quite a feat that Whitmill is booked solid for months at a time without the use of any advertising. His private, by appointment only studio, Paradox, generates all of his customers by word-of-mouth referrals.
In recent years, Whitmill has returned to his original passion, fine art. Painting when he can, in spite of a very busy work schedule, he continues to create art in his unique combination of abstract subjects and surrealistic renderings.
His work often contains an abstract blend of conflicting elements that appear as though they have made their peace with one another while rendered with a sense of atmosphere and space which invites the viewer into his work and look for the answers to it’s mysteries. His work may appear dark and possibly unsettling, yet it has a sense of tranquillity that might cause the viewer to question their original feelings on the image. Whitmill’s art may cause the viewer to reconsider what they perceive as beauty.
Whitmill works with tireless effort towards achieving artistic excellence in all works of art, whether it be on canvas, paper or skin. Although he is influenced by many artists, his style is his own. He does not replicate other’s work and his techniques are mostly self taught. He draws from his influences and unique imagination to create a place that can only exist on that canvas.
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A few pictures of the Paradox Studio Gallery in Las Vegas NV before it was closed. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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" Beautiful work..." Clive Barker - author, director & visual artist
" F#ckin' awesome..." Simon Bisley - comic & fine artist
" Four stars " Guy Aitchison - world renowned tattoo artist
" Legendary tattoo artist S. Victor Whitmill's work is hard to ignore..." Kelle Schillaci, Las Vegas CityLife
" When you see Whitmill's work for yourself, it's not hard to see why it would leave the viewer speechless..." Jaq Greenspon - Las Vegas CityLife
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awards...
Edgewater Biker Mardi Gras Tattoo Contest 2006 Best Overall Most Realistic
Skin Art Extravaganza Las Vegas, Nevada - August 20, 2005 1st place - Best Overall - Male 1st place - Best Black and Gray 1st place - Best Sleeve 1st place - Best Color
Hollister Independence Rally 1st place - Best Black and Gray
Edgewater Biker Mardi Gras Tattoo Contest Best Black and Gray
Valley of the Sun - 5th Annual Tattoo and Piercing Show Valley of the Sun, Arizona - 2005 1st place - Back
Las Vegas Tattoo Convention Las Vegas, Nevada - September 18 & 18, 2004 1st place - Large Black and Gray 1st place - Leg 1st place - Chest
Rally in the Rockies Ignacio, Colorado - Labor Day Weekend 2004 1st place - Best of Show 1st place - Traditional 1st place - Fantasy
Tattoo Magazine - Artistry in Ink Anaheim, California - May 24 & 25, 2003 3rd place - Sleeve
Valley of the Sun - 2nd Annual Tattoo and Piercing Show Valley of the Sun, Arizona - 2002 4th place
Laughlin River Run - 4th Annual Tattoo Contest Laughlin, Nevada - 2002 1st place - Best Black and Gray
Laughlin River Run - 3rd Annual Tattoo Contest Laughlin, Nevada - 2001 1st place - Best Black and Gray
Four Corners - 9th Annual Motorcycle Rally Four Corners, Southwest - 2001 1st place - Best Sleeve
Tattoo Magazine - Artistry in Ink '97 Anaheim, California - May 25, 1997 2nd place - portrait
Easyriders Bike and Tattoo Show Oakland, California - April 18, 1996 Invitational Class 3rd place - Best of Show - Female
Tattoo Tour - Great Northwest Tattoo Convention Seattle, Washington - October 12, 1995 Best Booth Banner
Easyriders Bike and Tattoo Show Oakland, California - March 24, 25 & 26, 1995 2nd place - Best of Show - Female 3rd place - Best of Show - Female
Club Tattoo Phoenix, Arizona - February 28, 1995 1st place - Best of Show - Female
Club Tattoo Phoenix, Arizona - January 17, 1995 1st place - Best Male
Tattoo Magazine - Artistry in Ink National Tour San Diego, California - January 6, 7 & 8, 1995 2nd place - Leg
Tattoo Magazine - Artistry in Ink National Tour San Diego, California - January 7, 1995 Top Tattooist of the Day
Tattoo Magazine - Artistry in Ink National Tour Phoenix, Arizona - December 30, 31 & January 1, 1995 1st place - Overall Female 1st place - Leg
Tattoo Rendezvous Kansas City, Missouri 1993 Tattooist of the Year 1st place - Most Photorealistic 1st place - Best Black and Gray 1st place - Tribal or Modern
Tattoo Rendezvous Kansas City, Missouri 1992 1st place - Best Overall Female
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Sin City Ink Sinkers (condensed) By Holly Tuesday Everyone in town had told me about Victor. He's one of the few artists living in Las Vegas who's been repeatedly featured in national magazines and was well respected at the shops that I visited. After hearing so much about him, I anticipated burning through dozens of cassette tapes as this man's ego poured into the recorder. Instead I found a soft-spoken, direct and incredibly focused artist who has easily claimed his niche in Las Vegas.
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Exquisite corpses By F. Andrew Taylor The surrealists in the 1920s played a game called "The Exquisite Corpse," in which three artists worked on the same drawing without seeing the work of their collaborators until it was finished. The result was often grotesque and amusing. The two shows in the common areas of the Arts Factory are creepy and disturbing, which is fine if you happen to like that sort of thing. I do. What's particularly interesting about the juxtaposition of these two shows is that each evokes unrest in a unique way. On the surface, S. Victor Whitmill's work is the more macabre of the two. The work is similar to that of the late H.R. Giger, but with a wider range of color. Giger is best known outside the art world as the designer of the title monster in Alien. Much of Whitmill's work looks like some mad scientist took about a dozen assorted arachnids and skeletons, and combined them artfully with some voluptuous unfortunate. The paintings tend toward a limited palette and the viewer is required to visually explore the work to separate the various foreground and background elements. The technique is wonderful, but any meaning to the works is, at best, obscure. Danny Roberts' work, on the other hand, is much easier to read and primarily uses more common elements, most notably the human figure and fabric. There is an intentional interplay between human figures painted in warm colors and the fabric in cool colors. The figures in Roberts' work are not a happy lot. They are menaced by suits, curled into fetal balls and cringing below fabric assaults. The message is much clearer in theses works, but they do not suffer from a surfeit of mystery and subtle inner shadings. Despite the fact that both of these shows are unsettling, to say the least, there's an undeniable beauty to them. There is richness in the colors and clarity of technique that is very appealing. Whitmill uses the airbrush so smoothly and seamlessly that the work takes on a photographic look (albeit a photograph of something that, thankfully, does not exist on this earth). The depth of the brushwork and the luminosity of the tones led me to ponder whether the work was at least partially created with layers of oil paint glazing. Roberts uses strokes that are crisper and textured while losing none of the monumental dimensionality and modeling. These are bold and accomplished works that challenge the viewer not to look away.
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Monster Man A personal look at tattoo and pop-culture artist S. Victor Whitmill By Jaq Greenspon
In his first major showing, A Collection of Abstract Organicism, S. Victor Whitmill has completely ruined the show's curator, Iceberg Slick. Slick, who is part of the 5ive Finger Miscount collective, doesn't know what he's going to do for the next First Friday when he has to follow-up Whitmill. Not that Iceberg is complaining too loudly. He asked for it when he approached Victor about doing a show. "I didn't think I was ready," Whitmill says now. In fact, he's still not sure he is, but the public seems to have other ideas - even if they're having a hard time putting those ideas into words. But Victor enjoyed watching them try. "People were having a hard time expressing themselves," he says. He tried to remain inconspicuous as he watched them walk into the open space at the Arts Factory in downtown, and then stop, slack-jawed, as they stared at the walls. When you see Whitmill's work for yourself, though, it's not hard to see why it would leave viewers speechless. It's not easy to categorize. At first glance, one might immediately want to put his work in the same box as H.R. Giger, the surreal artist best known for the design of the Alien movies, but it's not a good fit. While Victor himself recognizes Giger's influence, one he originally fought hard to ignore, his own work is more fluid. Victor will stare at a canvas, airbrush in hand, with the desire to create a new image. He'll have nothing specific in mind. ("My compositions start with movement and are defined from there," he says.) For Whitmill, it all has to do with how the eye moves across the canvas, something he picked up from another childhood influence, fantasy artist Frank Frazetta. "Frazetta had a way of making you look at what he wanted you to look at and not see what he didn't want you to see," says Whitmill, who tries to achieve the same effect in his own work. As he's defining a particular image, one of the first decisions he'll make is about the light source. Whitmill, a non-religious man, will create a light source for his paintings that he describes as "biblical" - active not static, with lots of contrast and conflict. It is the kind of light you'd expect in a da Vinci, not one that would be illuminating the images Victor is creating. But that's the point. When you see a light like that, you're forced to wonder what would cause it to shine, and maybe there's a goodness there that you, as the audience, missed on your initial glimpse. It's the classic "misunderstood monster" story, frozen in a single panel. It makes sense. Victor finds inspiration in the visuals of monster and science-fiction films, in the idea of things that cannot exist coming to life. It's been that way since he was 3, when he watched his father draw a picture of King Kong. At that moment, young Victor realized he could create illusion with nothing more than a pen and his imagination. He's been drawing ever since.
Recently, Victor's work has taken on a whole new quality, one which is readily seen in this current exhibit: honesty. He has stopped worrying about upsetting or offending people, and that freedom has opened up his work. He doesn't take commissions. He's not motivated by money. And he's not doing it for anyone else. Most importantly, he's not trying to say anything specific. He's only interested in putting his thoughts and images onto the canvas, and he wants you to see all the possibilities within his pieces. For that reason, none of his works are titled. He wants the viewer to bring himself to the art. It's a trip well worth taking. For Victor Whitmill, his art is about creating personal eye candy. For the rest of us, it's about exploring a world we never knew existed but one we've been invited to share.
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CityLife Picks (condensed) By Kelle Schillaci The work of legendary tattoo artist S. Victor Whitmill covers most of the common area (at the Arts Factory) in one of his biggest solo shows yet. Whitmill's work is hard to ignore. Swirled in curves of ravenous landscape. A signature osmosis between human, organic and mechanical compositions. Eyeballs watch you. Tree limbs that grab. Beyond the creep factor of sprouting bones, gnarled spinal cords and fleshy decomposition, the collection sports a clever sense of humor. Sepia toned "Fixer Upper" places an abandoned Batmobile in the middle of nowhere. "Plane Old Tree" has another gnarled beauty cradling a single-prop aircraft.
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