After decades of being a design director and working with world-class artists, I finally dipped my toes into painting back in 2017. This led to numerous sketch work, as well as many pet commissions for friends and others. In late 2019, with “Back to the Future” on in the background during a painting session, my brain did a “What if Doc and Marty were dogs?” I was off and running with an idea quickly named Movie Mutts.

In 2021, I won a Director’s Award at the Arizona State Fair for my piece “Crossing the Corningware,” a nod to Leutze’s famous “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” instead featuring cereal mascots (sold and now residing in Seattle). I’m currently working on a series of Tempe-related landscapes, as well as adding more to Movie Mutts.

Bill Pliske is a web developer and artist living in Tempe, Arizona. He’s married (Penny), has three awesome kids (Emily, Josh, and Carson), and the two best grandkids on the planet (Olivia and Nash). Follow him on Instagram: @billpliske