1974 Hanbelachia
JOURNEYMAN | 1967–1977
The Hanbelachia Series, 1974
Bill Iles regarded the first decade of his adult life, from 1967 to 1977, as an apprenticeship in his development as an artist. He called this period Journeyman, reflecting a decade of movement, exploration, uncertainty, and self-discovery.
During these years, Iles moved between teaching positions and artistic pursuits in Louisiana and the Dakotas. His journey took him from Louisiana Polytechnic Institute in Ruston to the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, then to Louisiana College in Pineville, back to Louisiana Tech, and eventually to Northeast Louisiana University in Monroe. Throughout this period, he sought a place where he could teach art while continuing to develop his own artistic identity.
It was a prolific and experimental decade. Iles worked across a wide range of subjects, styles, and media, producing drawings, paintings, assemblages, prints, and mixed-media works. His art reflected not only his evolving interests and techniques but also the personal experiences and uncertainties that shaped his life. As he later observed in his autobiographical retrospective, Journeyman, his artworks were, in every respect, a reflection of what he was going through at various stages of his life.
Among the works created during this period, the Hanbelachia series of 1974 stands out as perhaps his most cohesive and visually compelling body of work.
The series grew from Iles's continuing interest in Native American imagery and symbolism, influenced by his experiences living and teaching among the Lakota Sioux at Standing Rock. Hanbelachia, a Lakota Sioux word associated with the vision quest, reflects his ongoing search for personal and artistic meaning.
The eagle, a recurring motif throughout the series, serves as a powerful unifying image. Its sweeping wings and abstracted forms are integrated with geometric patterns, rhythmic lines, and richly layered colors. Although each painting stands independently, the works share a distinctive visual language. Bold compositions, repeated symbols, and interlocking shapes create a sense of movement and continuity across the series.
The Hanbelachia paintings represent a significant moment in Iles's artistic development, when his experimentation with abstraction, symbolism, color, and composition came together with unusual clarity and purpose.
The works presented in this gallery are a selection from a much broader and more varied period of artistic production. The Hanbelachia series has been chosen to represent the Journeyman years because of its visual strength and cohesion, offering a focused glimpse into a decade of artistic exploration that laid the foundation for Iles's subsequent work.