William Smock was born in Frankfort, Indiana in 1949. His father was a WW II veteran. Bill was noticed at an early age as having an amazing artistic gift. In the 3rd grade Bill's mother had him take art lessons from a Catholic nun in Lafayette, IN. His parents moved to northwest Indiana in 1962, where Bill grew up on a small farm with his three brothers. In 1967 Bill graduated from Hebron High School, and received an athletic scholarship in basketball and baseball at the University of Indianapolis. At the University of
Indianapolis, his love for being an artist continued to grow. In the fall of 1968 during the Vietnam War, the draft lottery came out as to males over 18 with a draft number by their birth date. Bill's draft number out of 365 days in the year was number 30. It was pretty certain that after Bill graduated from college that he would be drafter into the Army, and going to Vietnam.
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As it turns out, Bill graduated from the University of Indianapolis with a B. S. degree in Art Education in 1971, and enlisted into the Indiana National Guard. Bill signed his first teaching contract that same year. Bill taught elementary art for 38 years, minus the 2 and a half years he spent training for and deployed to Iraq twice. In the Indiana National Guard, Bill reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel as a Field Artillery officer. In 2004 Bill resigned his commission as a Lieutenant Colonel, and became a Chief Warrant Officer 2 to deploy to Iraq with soldiers in E (TAB) (Target Acquisition Battery) (a radar unit) 139th Field Artillery INARNG. After coming back from Iraq in 2006, Bill decided to stay in the National Guard, and deploy to Iraq in 2008 with the battalion he commanded in Evansville, IN from November 1999 to March 2003, the 1-163rd Field Artillery, 76 Infantry Brigade INARNG. After coming back from Iraq at the end of 2008, Bill stayed in the National Guard three more months until he turned 60 years old, then retired from the National Guard. He taught elementary art for one more year, then retired from teaching school.
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In Iraq in 2005 and 2008, Bill was able to paint in his off duty time. He completed 10 oil paintings and 110 watercolor paintings in the nearly two years he spent in Iraq. His paintings hung at the White House, Pentagon, Ft Leonard Wood, MO, the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago, IL, and various veterans hospitals and government buildings throughout the Midwest. Bill was featured on TV segments by CNN, FOX News, and the Armed Forces Network for his paintings in Iraq.
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At present, Bill is retired on his farm by the little town of Idaville, IN. His paintings are of rural Indiana and mountain scenes from New Mexico and Colorado. When ever Bill is not working on his farm, he paints. Being an artist that is able to show mood and feeling on canvas, is a dream that has come true for Bill. He enjoys painting scenes of detail with lots of colors reacting with other colors throughout the canvas, and of places people do not notice how beautiful things really are.
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William Smock's art degrees: B.S. Degree in Art Education at the University of Indianapolis 1971, MA Degree in Art Education at Ball State University 1976, and MA Degree in Art at the University of Indianapolis 2010.
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