Bill Hoppe has spent 14 years in Bend honing his artistic craft and sharing it with others. He has received several prestigious awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowship for drawing in 1981, and is currently teaching classes at COCC.

His deep connection with the Bend community is the reason he decided to donate his work to Art Central’s Black & White fundraiser.  Since the year 2000, Hoppe has been a board member for Arts Central, and has curated shows and galleries for them as well. “My birthday is coming up in October, so when Cate approached me about the artwork, I felt that it was the perfect opportunity to celebrate with the Bend community and give back to it,” says Hoppe.

His series Wavelengths is inspired by the diagram of the electro magnetic spectrum. Hoppe feels that his piece poetically plays out the colors and light that humans are capable of seeing, by laying out the images with cool tones, running into warmer ones and back to cool again. “They are meant to be seen in a sequence. Although they are individual paintings, I view them collectively as one piece,” Hoppe explains. Although he likes to create larger scale pieces, these smaller watercolor prints are more accessible to the public and were a change of pace to from his usual work.

Hoppe was eager to contribute his artwork to the Black & White fundraiser. “It is incredibly important to me to be able to support all of the arts, especially visual arts,” states Hoppe. His work will also be on view for the public in the Old Mill at the beginning of October.