In downtown Ubud it’s way too easy to get lost in crowds of unfamiliar faces. But as city dwellers pass through the side streets, a face that is becoming more and more familiar is found. It’s located on the walls of Sambal Matah, an Indonesian restaurant on Goutama Street. For some, the charcoal-drawn lady’s face simply adds to the ambience of the restaurant. To those that know the artist, her face is laced with a deeper history.
The real-life face behind the minimalistic lady’s portrait is an American artist, Bill Witter, who started his career at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 70s and later joined his wife, Maru Matthaei, who was doing a “healing arts tour” in Bali in the 90s.
“From the beginning, the arts in Bali were very inspiring to both of us,” Witter told Coconuts Bali. As he experienced the ‘buddhaful’ Balinese culture he noticed that “there’s definitely ‘something in the air’ in Bali that one can feel – for me it’s a quality of light but not necessarily in the spectrum of natural light.”
People on spiritual retreats come here to see the light, they awaken their mind, body, and soul. (Maybe even the surfer brahs have their own personal breakthroughs too after they realize how their Bintang habits are hurting their liver functions. Not to mention their deteriorating lung capacity after chain smoking clove cigs.)
At least Witter has taken a disgusting image, like tar-filled lung photos, and turned it into art. “I had been drawing faces on Oka’s [the owner of Sambal Matah] cigarette packs, over the scary medical photos on the perils of smoking. He had the idea for me to draw a large face on his restaurant wall. I said sure and started drawing directly on the wall,” Witter explained.
The masterpiece on the wall and his cigarette package transformations follow his style of creating life forms and figures. “For me there’s a quality of presence in faces that can reflect the human condition and also consciousness…But I also find a sweet poignancy in the challenges of not being able to connect in relationships. Being so close but so far away,” Witters said.
By personifying inanimate objects, especially in nature, Witters plays with the concept of transformations. Which is quite fitting as many Bali bound tourists come seeking some sort of life break or change of pace (#yogiforlife). For now the face at Sambal Matah is permanent (or at least until Ubud changes), but some of Witter’s other art forms are dependent on impermanence.
It being Bali and all, one of the mediums Witter has taken to is sand. In these drawings, he uses a bamboo stick and a special technique with “color variation [light coral and dark volcanic sand] on the beach …that make shapes after the tide has receded.”
“It could be said that the sand drawings represent our fragility and temporary status here on Earth as embodied entities…We live in precarious times. I create works that are ephemeral in nature, washed away by the sands of time” Witters shared.
Artists can be deeper than the ocean sometimes, so for those of you who prefer to not think at all and surf YouTube videos, add one of his sand drawings videos to your list.
The perfect place to watch the video would be at Sambal Matah (duh)! Then you’ll essentially be visiting the “Bill Witter gallery.” All he’s been trying to do is “give something back to Bali” since “the people of Bali and her culture have given” him so much.
Enjoy the gift of creativity and art, and as you roam around Ubud keep a keen eye for the faces you spy. You never know who is behind those eyes.
Reader Interactions