SANTA FE ARTWORLD
RESUME
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Denise Williams
903 W. Alameda, #736
Santa Fe, NM 87501
CONTACT
Phone: 505-424-8136
Website: DeniseWilliamsArt.com
Email: willow1660@aol.com
MEDIA PAGE
Art is Moving Interview March, 18, 2010 - Denise Williams
REPRESENTATION, Commissions, Exhibits, Promotions, Etc.
o 2010 May Shidoni Foundry & Gallery
o 2010 SoCurio, Los Angeles, CA
o 2009 - 10 Jezebel Gallery, Madrid, NM
o 2008 - 10 X-Power Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan, Group show Dec. '08.
o 2008 - 10 Kay-Lochausen Fine Art Gallery, El Paso, TX
o 2009 Dec Open Hands, Open Hearts 3rd annual fundraiser, Group Show at the Edge, Santa Fe, NM
o 2009 Nov Life Link, the “Journeys of Courage: Expressions of Personal Change” group show, Santa Fe, NM
o 2009 -10 Lanai Gallery Collection, Naples, FL
o 2009 Revolution Art 2009, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkseYoh55LI
o 2009 The Musical Rhythm of Life Exhibit, Taipei, Taiwan, Group show X-Power 2009/06
o 2008 - 09 Antiquarius Imports, Santa Fe, NM
o 2008 - 09 Art Impact, Chicago, IL
o 2008 - 09 Camorra Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
o 2008 - 09 Foleys Fine Art, Sarasota, FL
o 2007 - 10 Santa Fe ArtWorld
o 2008 Portrait commission, Sayed Badreya
o 2008 First International Autumn Auction held in Taiepei, Taiwan (November)
o 2008 Buddhist Forshang Temple, Taiwan - private collection
o 2008 Christi Naked, New Classic Nude Art Competition, Miami, FL
o 2008 Artisan, Santa Fe, NM - Featured January
o 2007 The Christiana “New Nude” Art Competition, NY - finalist
o 2007 World Wide Figure Drawing League
o 2007 Art of Chicago, (Featured Artist, May 2007)
o 2007 Designer Showcase of Homes, Sarasota, FL, - Feb.
o 2006 - 07 Amsterdam Whitney International Fine Art, Chelsea District, NY -
o 2006 - 07 Paradigm Art, Sarasota, FL
o 2006 Doug Meyer Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY
o 2005 - 08 Art World Chicago - Feature Artist 2005
o 2005 NM ART EXPO: Rio Grande Art Association, Albuquerque, NM - May
o 2005 Houshang, Santa Fe, NM, Jan - May
o 2004 Katiwhompas Gallery, Santa Fe, NM - June - solo show
o 2003 Tierra Contenta Art Fair, Santa Fe, NM - November
o 2002 - 03 Massage & Banya Spa, Santa Fe, NM - Premier Artist
o 2001 - 02 Cleansheets Gallery, Edmonton, AB Canada - Featured Artist 2001
o 2001 Mayberry Gallery, Reno, NV
o 2001 New Medium Art, Reno, NV
o 2001 The Offering for promotion of Saving Egyptian Film Classics motion
picture produced by Sayed Badreya - Zoom In Focus Productions
o 2001 Cover art for CD/musical score by Mark Wolfram for Saving Egyptian Film Classics
- Wolfram Productions
o 2001 Heart of America for a film documentary produced by Sayed Badreya.
featured on Sayed's Website: zoominfocus.com
o 2000 Installation, Tai Chi Chuan, Santa Fe, NM 2000
PUBLICATIONS
o 2009 Ventanas Interior Design Edition, “Tequila Makeover” (Winter)
o 2009/06 Chinese Contemporary Art News
o 2009/06 Art Investment
o 2009 A Published Gallery - InnerCircle Publishing
o 2007 Art of Chicago - full story
o 2007 Gallery Guide
o 2007 M - New York Art World
o 2007 Art in America - Chelsea Guide
o 2007 Art & Auction
o 2007 SRQ, Sarasota's Premier Magazine
o 2006/07 Artnet
o 2006/08 Ask Art
o 2003 Neighborhood News, Nov/Dec
o 2002 N Magazine, Reno, NV- Feature Story
o 2001 Clean Sheets, Ontario, Canada - Full article
AWARDS
The Nobbie Award
Presented by the Round Table Producer's Group in association with The Life Link group show “Journeys of Courage: Expressions of Personal Change”.
“The Nobbie” is a symbol of human resiliency in the face of sometimes remarkable challenge, the willingness to open yet another closed door and see what's on the other side. No one wins a Nobbie; it is simply given to be held for the entire community
EDUCATION
Artistic and Historical Instruction by her mother, grandparents and additional family members who were artists as well, some formal education, but no degree acquired.
REVIEWS
~ From abstractionism to representationalism, Denise expresses the thought of “return to original nature” ~ Master Lee, Sun-Don
~ your colors are a wonderful joy for the senses and transmit complete your solar personality, and your hypersensitive women.
~ William Tode
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.
~ I realized too the caring nature of your work. I felt the sadness in the misty translucence and the longing of the trees in their vulnerability. It was the sadness I felt when I realized the futility in the micro-struggles of the people surrounding me, and the pity I felt for them at the moment of that realization. I think there was pity there for the way I had been once too, but my experience filtered through such a looking glass has become the talisman of my humanity... as your paintings are of yours.
~ Charlie Andrijanoff
ARTISTIC DISCOVERY & 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.
ARTISTIC PURPOSE
Regardless of the art form chosen to deliver any message, the truth of life within all things living cannot be said, only felt. The things we must find in all looses its essence when given form in thought -- lost to another creation in our own minds as the thought lingers therein.
Such is the case and why I choose the expression of feelings through visual art for it is rarely I deliver or receive a word without a multitude meanings. Regardless I find I paint no differently from how I deliver words or receive them. . ..
My Work, as Jean Dubuffet stated, is about things seemingly unessential. . ..
Truth. Love. Compassion. Innocence. Life giving life. Parables. Acceptance. No resistance. Forgiveness. Understanding. Consciousness. Mind and its interruptions. Meditations. Purity. Things we uncommonly find in ourselves and others even though it exists in abundance. . ..
ARTIST SSTATEMENT
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.
BIO.
Artist Denise Williams has worked diligently for the last 20 year to create a new and unique style utilizing traditional artist archival materials. After much intense and very thorough research, it is thought she accomplished this goal in 2004 within the Diaphaney Series, both in artistic representation of subject matter and in the finish of pieces as well. The end result is a depth and luminosity of product that is felt to be unique to the market.
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 ambitions, or to be concerned about what is therein, but to render art as born from the soul. Art, as my child taught me, 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.
AGORA GALLERY - One of New York's most established Art Galleries. Agora Gallery is an excellent art resource for Art Dealers, Artists and the general public. Original art can be seen at any of their many exhibitions or on their online art gallery.
WEB SITE DESIGN: Lee Klopfer Photography
