Bill Thelen is an artist living in Raleigh, North Carolina.

For the past couple of years I have been exploring the idea of people living on the fringe of society. People who have been forgotten or overlooked, people from the past and the future.

My work takes many forms. I am not loyal to any particular medium. Usually my work starts with drawing, and I go from there. I start filling in holes. In my mind, I am editing a film or curating a group show. I love films that defy narrative and jump back and forth in time. I am constantly asking myself: Why do we have to follow a timeline and be a slave to time-based structure? I often find myself thinking about what is happening off-screen or after the film has ended.

People are drawn to a narrative and I like to chip away at it. The randomness of images out of place is very dream-like, floats the viewer from scene to scene. In my own work, I pull from every aspect of my life. I put together what makes sense to me and hope others can follow along. It's the best I can do. I can only hope to connect with the film that is playing in my head -- pulling snapshots out that are never on point and always deviate from a driving narrative. I aim to allow the viewers to make the narrative propel forward in their own way.