Hey, my name is William Cockrell. I am an electrical engineering student at the University of Colorado Boulder. I was born in Missoula, Montana to a British mother and a half Chinese, half American father. Both of my parents work in the art world. My mother was an Islamic art specialist for Christie’s, now working freelance, cataloguing all Islamic manuscripts for the National Trust (the UK’s equivalent of national parks and historic sites.). She also taught art history while we were living in Montana, and my first memories of the art world stem from her. My father was a commercial photographer in New York in the days before digital photography. He even hired an assistant, Marc Jacobs, for two weeks before they quit to pursue other interests (I hope they were successful in their chosen field). He then began purchasing art on behalf of the son of a rich oil family, which is how he met my mother.

I have always enjoyed the freedom of art, although not my strength. Many math teachers have made me redo otherwise acceptable homework due to endless doodles around the edges of the page. Art has also gotten me in trouble in other ways: In fourth grade, drawing big (inappropriate) murals on the side of my school in chalk. In 6th grade, passing short (inappropriate) comics of my math teacher around the class. In 9th grade, sneakily drawing phallic objects on peoples’ shoes while they were wearing them. 

None of these to say I was any kind of bad boy, in-fact I am quite proud that I have never been suspended. But to say that almost all the art that I have a clear memory of creating came with reaction and backlash, which I think all good art has, just with more creativity and subtlety than I've achieved.