But, instead of being thrilled by his inventiveness, we've come to take it for granted, and when the fruits of all this cunning hyperactivity are gathered in one place it's easy to lose sight of the artist's sustained, show-after-show achievement.
I would get stuck in a painting and just say out loud "Bill, what would you do?" And I actually picture him sitting behind me, enjoying the sight of another artist duking it out while he relaxes in the great beyond.
Whether or not you think it's dumb that R2-D2 can fly in the original Star Wars trilogy, the sight of drone artist Otto Dieffenbach's styrofoam recreation of the lovable droid soaring of San Diego Comic-Con this weekend is a joy.
"People lose sight of how an artist becomes successful in 2011," said Bill Werde, Billboard's editorial director.
Then the sight of former conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner, scraggly beard and hair grown down to his ankles, lolling on a "staring bench" across from the star, looking for all the world like an overgrown, drooling baby in a high chair, really made me gag and turn it off.
The last is a sighting of the artist's ghost-to-be; Schjerfbeck died the year after it was made.
"I often think of the vacant Smith-Cairns Ford building as a possible sight for artist studios, classrooms and a gallery," said Mr. Abele.
"A feeling of excitement is palpable in some new experimentation and interpretation, whether that emanates from street art or comic books, or videos or performance," she says, while careful to add, "However interesting some of that liveliness might be, and however enthusiastic the raw vigor may feel, we shouldn't lose sight of the many older artists who are doing the best work of their lives.
It was on a school trip to Tuscany when he was 14 that, he recalled, "I had my first sight of the 15th century artist, Piero della Francesca's incredible painting of the Resurrection in Borgo San Sepolcro.
