b. July 1951,  Kansas City

raised on the banks of the missouri river afforded will combs a lyrical, imaginative and mischievous childhood.

1969 graduated high school in Kansas, attended Woodstock.

stripped of athletic scholarship at Arizona State university, he shifted to their school of architecture, studying with Paolo Soleri and Calvin Straub.

1972 left college to travel in Europe and live in Mexico. Centro Artistiche, Boissano, Italy. study of painting. Vigil de Cruz fellowship, Oaxaca, Mexico. printmaking.

1975 resumed college at UC Santa Cruz, awarded BA degrees in fine art and motion picture, with a minor in history of consciousness.

worked as a cameraman and documentary filmmaker, projects include award winning films and ethnographic studies of the Lacandon Maya of Chiapas, santeria' of Marianoa Cuba,  beat era poets of San Francisco's North Beach and Kwakuitl totem carvers of Haida Gwai.  1983 designed theater sets for Kafka's Metamorphosis 1983 settled in Hollywood, toiled on about 20 feature films in various capacities; as draftsman, carpenter, scenic painter, set designer, art director, and eventually as production designer.

disillusioned with Hollywood, defected to San Francisco in the 90's, began the pursuit of painting full time.
 

SELECTED COLLECTIONS
san jose museum of art
jeanneret gallery, geneva, switzerland
dennis duerden, cambridge u.k.
mario puzo estate, long island
robert m. eversz, barcelona
dr. nancy ascher, san francisco
fiona jackson, vancouver b.c.
george gund III, san francisco
unifrance films, hollywood
ernesto rancano, havana, cuba
w. clint parsley, austin, texas
duro shakir nuri, prague
imagery estate winery, glen ellen