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About the artist...

My name is William Turner, born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. What inspires me to paint? Everyone has their own reasons, but my inspiration and drive for becoming an artist comes from a relentless and restless pursuit of being considered hands down one of the best local Charleston artist ever. Most people don’t realize that I have been painting consistently and taking art seriously since I was ten years old. I started taking lessons from Charles Parnelle, an artist who is highly skilled and well respected throughout Charleston. I took lessons from him once a week, every Monday for two hours for 8 years straight. I was forced to stop because I was going off for college at The Citadel and they aren’t exactly known for letting you do what you want when you want. Needless to say, I never stopped painting or sketching. I am currently 28 years old. I now have been a dedicated artist who has been studying and practicing the sweet science of painting and what it means to be an artist for a consistent 18 years.

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These past four years I have been working for the Port of Charleston with absolutely no consistent schedule. Since I was on-call 24 hours a day 7 days a week, there would be times where I was working 2-3 days straight. This deeply impacted my art career. Starting March of 2021, this will be the first time in my entire life that I can actually have the financial stability and freedom to be able to completely focus on my art career. I am beyond excited to be able to have this opportunity, it has always been a dream of mine. It has been no walk in the park by no means. I still remember like it was yesterday. Four years ago, I would often finish my way back home from work, walking on the side of the road because I had spent the last dollar I had on art supplies instead putting it in my gas tank. Life giving the harsh reminder that cars don’t run on faith.

Currently, my art business is doing very well. I have sold hundreds of my paintings. Being an artist in the famous, historic downtown Charleston City Market, which is rated the number one tourist attraction market in the nation, I feel very blessed and lucky to be where I am today. My art career is just starting to snowball and I haven’t even scratched the surface of what it could be. I am now able to fully focus on my art. It's rewarding to finally have the time and money needed to skillfully plan and execute all of the necessary business decisions in order to make my art career take off.

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