PERSONAL INFORMATION
Denise Williams
903 W. Alameda, #736
Santa Fe, NM 87501
CONTACT
Phone: 505-424-8136
Website: DeniseWilliamsArt.com
Email: willow1660@aol.com
REPRESENTATION
Cassandra Richarson
Cassandra@CamorraFineArt.com
REPRESENTATION, Commissions, Exhibits, Promotions
Camorra Fine Art, San Francisco, CA 2008 www.camorrafineart.com
Artisan - Featured January 2008 http://www.artisan-santafe.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.artisanpages.artist_talk/artists/williams
Foleys Fine Art, Sarasota, FL 2008
The Christiana “New Nude” Art Competition, NY, 2007 www.christinaked.com
Santa Fe ArtWorld, 2007 www.SantaFeArtWorld.com
World Wide Figure Drawing League, 2007 http://www.beautifuldrawings.com/league.htm
Art of Chicago, (Featured Artist, May 2007) http://www.artofchicago.net/stories/
Fine Art America, 2007
Designer Showcase of Homes, Sarasota, FL, - Feb. 2007
Amsterdam Whitney International Fine Art, Chelsea District, NY - 2006, 07
Paradigm Art, Sarasota, FL - 2006, 07
Doug Meyer Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY -- 2006
Art World Chicago - Feature Artist 2005, - 2005 - 07
New Mexico ART EXPO: Rio Grande Art Association, Albuquerque, NM - May 2005
Houshang, Santa Fe, NM, Jan - May 2005
Yessy- 2005, 06
Katiwhompas Gallery, Santa Fe, NM - Featured Artist June 2004 - 2004
Tierra Contenta Art Fair, Santa Fe, NM - Featured Artist - November 2003
Massage & Banya Spa, Santa Fe, NM - Featured Artist - 2002
Cleansheets Gallery, Edmonton, AB Canada - Featured Artist 2001, - 2001, 2002
Mayberry Gallery, Reno, NV - 2001
New Medium Art, Reno, NV - December 2001
The Offering for promotion of Saving Egyptian Film Classics motion picture produced by Sayed Badreya - Zoom In Focus Productions - 2001 - 05
Cover art for CD/musical score by Mark Wolfram for Saving Egyptian Film Classics -Wolfram Productions - 2001
Heart of America for a film documentary produced by Sayed Badreya. Featured on Sayed's Website: zoominfocus.com - 2001 - 07
Installation, Tai Chi Chuan, Santa Fe, NM 2000
PUBLICATIONS
Art of Chicago - full story, 2007
Gallery Guide, 2007
M - New York Art World, 2007
Art in America - Chelsea Guide, 2007
Art & Auction, 2007
SRQ, Sarasota's Premier Magazine, 2007
Artnet, 2006 - 07
Ask Art, 2006 - 07
Neighborhood News, Nov/Dec, 2003
N Magazine, Reno, NV- Feature Story - 2002
Clean Sheets, Ontario, Canada - Full article of artist and work -2001
Education
Artistic and Historical Instruction since age 4 by her mother, grandparents and additional family members who were artists as well, some formal education, but no degree acquired.
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Excerpts from Ms. Ruthie Tucker, Executive Director and Curator of Amsterdam Whitney:
. . . Creating a sense of mystery, Ms. Williams metaphorically portrays themes of life and invites us to have a spiritual dialogue between the viewer and her art. Indeed, her art is a celebration of the human experience.
. . .Infused with light, Ms. Williams' delicate compositions are ripe with associations of both allegory and spiritual reckonings. With a supremely painterly style, she caresses the canvas with impressionistic brushstrokes whose symbolic figures represent truth, wisdom, and grace. These universal principles are celebrated in her ephemeral and sublime work.
. . . In fact, the remote and detached nature of her enchanted female figures and the absence of details in their environment make her art so compelling, and in turn timeless, thus allowing the viewer to rejoice in the fundamental values of life.
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Artistic Process
Santa Fe Artist Denise Williams
The process for the Diaphaney Series began out of despair.
In the early spring of 2004, I was surfacing canvases thinking of how I had totally destroyed my life over my love for art. The phone rang, my hands were filled with molding paste, I reached into the trash for a piece of tissue paper that lay on top, wiped my hands cleaned, but had missed the call, an important call, one for a job, one I said I would be there for. Out of frustration, I stuck the tissue paper filled with molding paste onto the canvas because I felt I had further trashed my life. Regardless, I could not destroy the canvas for it was my love. Instead of calling back as quickly as possible, I smoothed the paper out amid a stream of tears and pulled more tissue paper out of the trashcan and adhered it to the canvas.
I cannot explain why I continued to do this until I had totally covered the canvas with the crumpled paper, adhered carefully, except that I felt calm in doing so. During this entire time, of putting trash on my canvas, I thought of how raw, how unfair my life had been, what trash it was, and how I did not want that for my son. I vowed, as I tormented the terrain of my canvas, that all my paintings henceforth would be painted on the trash of my life until innocence prevailed above all. All bad things covered, made beautiful, given peace.
Of course when I initially tried to smooth the tissue into the molding paste, it tore. It became so important to me to do this, I figured out a way: varnish, which once poured over the top allowed the delicate paper to smooth in easily. Hence the Bible paper, or India paper, I use is now adhered with a heavy gel medium, and then varnished to provide a transparent terrain. Acrylic paints are laid down in watercolor coat consistency with featherlike strokes, laying down up to five layers over each layer to become visible. More gel is added, then more paint, then gel, and finally finished with varnish. The end product is sometimes mistaken momentarily for encaustics - no that can't be right, what is it? - the common response.
I like the word bible paper for I am reminded of Job and how he danced and sang and gave praise unto the Lord though he suffered much and lost everything for his love. I sometimes feel like Job, my heart impenetrable for love always prevails above all. Everything can be taken from me, my health, etc., but my love will never break and I will always sing in my heart though my legs can no longer dance. I hope this joy shows in my work for this love I have, I give to my son. If you see my soul on canvas, then I have done nothing more than offered a prayer through my art for my child to have a better life than I. My prayer. My love. My child.
About that job, they were calling to tell me they were giving it to someone who was bilingual and could speak Spanish fluently, but appreciated my level of professionalism so wished to respond personally rather than through the mail. I'm glad I didn't loose that powerful moment in my life to take yet another call which would deny me daily existence again which ultimately always allows my path as artist.
I believe if we live each moment as we have it, and not rue it for what we do not have, nor what did not happen, we will ultimately find things are just as they should be.
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Artist Statement
Genius is not achieved alone; rather it is based upon the wisdom of the masters, for without the greats there is no understanding, only a stagnant pool of unsubstantiated ideas relayed in a meaningless message. I endeavor to achieve insight and relay that message through art as what we see before us is often but an illusion.
My work is about things seemingly unessential - truth, justice, wisdom, and human experience and inspired by Jean Dubuffet who stated: “I would like people to see my work as a rehabilitation of scorned values and, in any case, a work of ardent celebration.”
Regarding the figures, I could not have said it better than Ruth Bernhard who said, “If I have chosen the female form in particular, it is because beauty has been debased and exploited in our sensual 20th century. Woman has been the subject of much that is sordid and cheap, especially in photography. To raise, to elevate, to endorse with timeless reverence the image of woman has been my mission.”
Regarding artistic presentation, I heed Paul Gauguin's advice who said, “It is the obligation of the artist to create, not to imitate.”
I am inspired by many: de Vinci for his softness and depth of perception, his technique. Michaelangelo for his ability to bring physical form from elements of the earth as well the masculine quality of his work. Goya's Dark Period for the torment he recognized in society and his imagery that lies seemingly within nothing. Monet for his pallet, diffusion, and depth. Gauguin's passion and use of color, his purpose to create a new world through art. Van Gogh's movement and artistic purpose. Rothko's minimalism. Turner for his visions and influence on others though largely unrecognized. Of contemporary artists, I admire most Ruth Bernhard, Phyllis Kapp, Valerie Estvan, Richard Scott, Gib Singleton, Wolf Kahn, Dick Williams, and Tomas Hrivnac for their great talent and originality.
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Bio
Denise Williams has been producing art for more than forty-three years. Having begun art lessons at age four, she has worked with a multitude of materials mastering the human figure by age 20.
She is first in her family to work in acrylics, the medium she favors today. Suspending paints between multiple layers of acrylic gel, gives her work a translucent appearance infused with light.
In Santa Fe, I have learned many things of art, first to let my instincts guide me and not to worry about gaining a gallery, or to be concerned about what is therein, but to render art as born from the soul; art should have a life of its own as the night and day of which we inhabit and one should render many views therein - that is what we mean by abstract art or thinking.
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