Artist’s Statement

Creativity has been a part of my life since my earliest memories. It became clear, from a very young age, there was an artist within. I was drawing before preschool, and was painting by the time I was in my early teens. I suppose there was little doubt I would develop my career goals based on these indications, but this wasn’t the case. For many years I remained unfocused about my future; jumping from periods of art classes to spans of time working for the sake of simply earning a living. One day though, in a moment of clarity, I found myself making preparations to attend The Corcoran School of Art in nearby Washington, D.C. Four years later I had earned myself a BFA in graphic design. By this time though, I was in my early thirty’s and deeply entrenched in family and adult responsibility. Many years have passed since then, but the artist within me has never died. Today I have space in my basement I use as my studio, and divide my time between work, family, and abstract painting.

The art I am now creating involves expanding on a process I discovered, and perhaps invented while in school. The result is purely abstract and the process unconventional, and deals with the addition and subtraction of layers of acrylic paint. My goal is to push materials as far as they will go, and in fact, see each new work of art as an experiment in materials and process. With each new painting, a discovery is often made which becomes a starting point for the next work. My tools too are often unconventional: finding them as frequently at the hardware store as at the artist’s supply store. I even experiment with the mathematical proportions of my stretchers, which I construct myself.

In terms of art history, I find myself drawn to two artists for inspiration: Vincent van Gogh and Jackson Pollock. At first glance perhaps, an unlikely pair, although Pollock has been described as an American Vincent van Gogh. Both were tortured geniuses and the creative forces of their times, but for me, it is both these artists pushed their materials and processes to the point of changing the course of art as it was known to their contemporaries, all the while struggling against the difficulties of the social hands they were dealt. This is my goal as an artist, and this is what I want my work to represent. I have missed opportunities in my life to make creativity the centerpiece of my career, but I will not let this stop me from making the most of the time I do have to devote to my art.

John Grady Williams