Artist Bill Kidwell graduated from Central High School in 1954. He then served three and one-half years in the Marine Corps, and later entered UT to study art. Following a serious injury to three fingers of his right hand during dress rehearsal for the Carousel Theatre play Stalag 17 in 1958, he withdrew from UT and became the seventh- and eighth-grade science, health, and art teacher at Vestal Junior High, also coaching the basketball team. In 1960 he resigned and moved first to Miami and then to Los Angeles, where he became a technical illustrator for Lockheed Aircraft. There he progressed to department manager and by his fourth year was working on the top-secret SR-71 Blackbird Project. In 1964 he resigned and moved to Mazatlan, Mexico, and in 1966 he returned to UT to complete his art degree with Professor Hollis Stevens.
He developed a new technique of detailed images that he described as “a combination of pop art and surrealism.” He earned the bachelor’s in art in 1966. After traveling the eastern United States painting some scenes and photographing others for future work, he moved to California, then Taos, New Mexico. He then returned to Knoxville, where he taught design and figure drawing for two years.
In 1972 he served as artist and photographer for a National Geographic expedition to Mexico, but, before he left, he and his friend Cormac McCarthy created a 15-foot section of mosaic sidewalk in downtown Maryville, which was moved in 2003 to the plaza in front of the Blount County Library. In 1973 Kidwell moved to Williamson County, where he built a passive solar timber frame house. It was so admired that he started a construction company and built similar houses for others. Thirteen years later, he moved back to the Knoxville area and subsequently relocated back to Williamson County.