Willie Alexander was a war baby, born in 1943. He started life as an outsider, moving every few years due to his minister father’s church assignments. From ages 8 through 13, Willie’s family landed in Gloucester. Willie fell in love, as have so many creative people, and after leaving, was always trying to get back. He, along with his wife, photographer Anne Rearick, finally succeeded in 1997.Most people know Alexander for his groundbreaking music and deep participation in the cutting edge scene associated with musicians who came out of art schools in the 1960s and 1970s. The Boston Scene was important and influential. At that time, and over the years, many of those musicians, Willie Alexander included, were still making visual art, sometimes writing poetry, and producing and collaborating in theatre and dance performances. Boundaries between artistic genres were generally breaking down in those days. This was not unusual.For Alexander, art is art, process is process, whatever the medium it is about communicating with the world, trying to make sense of the fragments of life and how they fit together and why it matters. Collage plays a big role in Alexander’s work, and so do words, so do the traditions of street art and graffiti and poetry and spoken word. The art is an auto didact’s way of sharing his thinking about existence, and how he sees the moments in life that have significance.Willie Alexander is a natural artist. It is his essence. It is an honor to be part of this retrospective of his work in his beloved city. The exhibition may help its viewers understand more about a side of the American experience they may not know.

Susan Erony, Independent Curator, 2019