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Artist looks back after 34 years

ARTIST VISITS HIS OWN – Bill Hickerson, director of the West Tennessee Regional Art Center, joins artist Bill Schimek who created this piece “Eddie Rides a Bus” in 1983. He had not seen this piece of his art for 34 years, but was allowed the opportunity to see it and photograph it last Friday.

A longtime artist was recently reunited with one of his creations from more than three decades ago and it happened in Humboldt.

Bill Schimek is an attorney and an artist who hails from Maryland. In 1983 he was living and working in Nashville. He was an attorney for the State of Tennessee for 10 years.

Schimek loved his neighborhood and the characters of it. One such person was a man by the name of Eddie, who inspired a piece of three-dimensional art by Schimek entitled “Eddie Rides the Bus.”

Schimek built and painted the piece 34 years ago. But he just recently had the opportunity to see it again in Humboldt at the West Tennessee Regional Art Center and photograph it for the sake of saving all of his work.

The piece had long ago been purchased by the late Dr. Ben Caldwell who donated it to the West Tennessee Regional Art Center. Dr. Caldwell is a Humboldt native who donated many pieces to the art center.

Schimek fondly remembers Eddie as being one of the many thousands of non-violent people living in mental institutions who were released to live with other members of society. “Eddie,” recalled Schimek, “was one of the success stories. He integrated well with society.”

Now back in Maryland, Schimek is restoring an old farmhouse. He was in Tennessee to visit old friends, view the eclipse and to attend a meeting at the Tennessee State Museum.

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