Retired farmer William Holzman found fame in his 80s, producing whimsical folk art in the garage of his Tucson home. After my mother Marcia Spark began collecting his work, our families became friends, and it seemed natural enough for me (a student at the University of Arizona at the time) to create a documentary film about his life and work. The result was "Just Puttering Around", a portrait that I finished in 1992 when William was 89 years young. The documentary would not have been possible without the encouragement of my parents and especially Sally Sumner, who worked in the U of A Department of Communications. As payback for being Sally's intern, and lugging around a rather large deck for a 3/4" videotape camera, I got lessons in video editing, cinematography, and sound. Those lessons were a wonderful gift -- and thanks to a lot of hard work by me and patience from Sally the video turned out well. Back then there were not many film festivals to submit shorts like this, but it did run in a couple. Not knowing how slim the odds might be, I submitted the film to the Student Emmy Awards and was delighted when, months later, I found out it'd won in the documentary category.
Bill had an amazing spirit about him, a kindness and calmness and sense of humor that I think comes through in the video. Even today twenty years after making the film certain things he said come up in my mind, because his sensibility was so unique. "I don't make 'farm art'," he would say -- making a joke about 'fine art' -- "because if you make fancy stuff you got an awful lot of competition. But if you make crappy stuff then you're all by yourself." Like many things he said, there's a laugh when you think about that, and a truth to it as well.
Holzman produced his amazing art for a few years after the documentary was completed, and had a backlog of order requests that would have taken five or six years to catch up to. In the end of course it proved impossible, and after he passed away there were many disappointed would-be customers.
You can read an article about Bill from the Tucson Weekly archives here: www.tucsonweekl...