This weeks Featured Artist... HELEN WILLIAMS
HELEN WILLIAMS
The floodgates of creativity have lead her on a path to creating images with passionate sweeps and swooshes, or refined detail work. All intuitively shaped through her connection in and of her natural self and the Universe around.
Describe yourself in 5 sentences... " 1. I am a product of all my experiences, from childhood, onward, shaping perceptions and mis-perceptions that have been held for most of my adult life. 2. I have been graced with insights that have brought those to light over the past few years and the falsity of those adopted through others behaviours played out on that child, re shaping my view of my world in this moment.
3. I daily hug that childhood me, who has been brought to heart, with survivors courage and unconditional love for the perceived suffering she felt then.
4. I am simply human with all that does and doesn’t entail.
5. I am connected to who and what I am, an ordinary woman with an extraordinary perception of the world in my view. "
What gets your creative juices flowing? / How does inspiration come to you? "As an intuitive artist, there is little forethought or preparation. It starts in heart, a flutter of feeling to lay down paint in particular ways, with layers of what has now been recognised as a self formed symbolism. When I woke early one morning there were wings in my heart mind. A need to get them expressed however spontaneously, that became an exploration of technique and mark making that hadn’t been used before. Palette knife and thicker paint. There is impetus and drive from within that is, paradoxically of a stillness and of an urgency. Creativity flows regardless, it’s the thinking mind that shapes limitations. To release feelings of fear, doubt, unworthiness, to embrace my nature of how I’m feeling in any moment is to let the juices of creativity flow."
Why do you create art? "From where I am here and now, I can’t deny that inner passion of creating. It’s part of expressing who I am. Each intuitive painting comes as it will. Once completed or nearing completion I can then read the layers and imagery. Be that of solely soul self or that in relationship to the world in my view. Creating understanding of being human in a seemingly fast paced, technology driven world and modern concepts with what I recognise as the Ancient in me. That is in all of us. The DNA encoded part of where I come from. So my why is for me to know me better, in the stillness of sitting and creating. That knowing helps me recognise me in every other living thing. "
What has been the highlight of your career so far? "There are many highlights. Having work accepted here in D31’s ‘Winter’ exhibition, and the Royal Cambrian Academy open exhibition. Attending the previews and seeing my works hung in glorious spaces for people to see. Yet that is a highlighting of the courage to step up and own ‘I am an Artist’. " What does your dream studio look like? "In 2021, once I realised the undeniability of this passion that is art, I dreamed of a studio. I live that dream now, in the studio my husband and I had built at the end of the garden. It is my space. It is stillness and energy. Light of day and an inner beacon of my centered serenity. Built of wood it’s is glorious sufficiency. Do I dream of something bigger, lighter, more space to paint much larger? Yes and no, here and now I have exactly what I need, when that is no longer felt to be the case then things will change. "
Where would you like your art to take you? "Art already takes me in, through and beyond. It takes me everywhere and no where. It is a finding and learning of self and relationship of that with the world and others. I need go nowhere else but be here and now. To have artworks that travel the world, to hang permanently in public spaces, my name be known for serenity of manifested spaces to rest the busy-ness of the thinking mind. To travel and see my work being exhibited at Ancient sites around the world. On a smaller scale to have a solo show, with open skies with woodland near."
How does your artwork relate to current issues in the world? "To bring about a sense of peace, there perhaps needs to be understanding of where the source of disharmony lies. In essence there is disharmony within ourselves. There is a conditioning from birth, childhood and beyond to gather things of matter, from out there. That comparisons and judging those comparisons is a measure of success. That there is more to be had from material things so as to measure worth and value, rather than be content with sufficiency. That there is so much busy-ness, acquisitiveness, and non-discerning use of technological diversions that the human being-ness of our innate nature is denied, subjugated and dis-connected. My artworks offer re-connection. Visual spaces to be still with. To quiet a thinking head-mind and allow the heart-mind to surface. A space in which to be kind to oneself. That kindness to self allows kindness to others. In embracing our own imperfections is to develop a response ability. To act and interact kindly, to become tolerant and accepting of others imperfections. Not reactive. "
Does art always have to have a deeper meaning?

 "No and yes, it’s all personal perception. The artists voice may simply be to express the joy of rendering a well executed painting of a vase of flowers. In my own work there is, once painted, insights there for me. Insights about how I am feeling and what I may be trying to express using my visual voice. The painting can then be read by me, much like a book. A book that needs to be sat with and considered, in that considering language may then be crafted to give a verbalising of what it is to be me. So art doesn’t have to have deeper meanings for all people. It’s a human trait to want meaning, to be able to label or understand things that sometimes simply require acceptance and acknowledgement. " Who/what inspires you? Why?

 "Everyday people inspire me. Those getting up every day and going about every day tasks even when they feel like curling up and hiding from the world. Human resilience is astonishing. To see other people creating art, whether famous and hanging in museums or simply done for their own joy and therapy. The natural world around me is awesome in its variety, it too shows remarkable resilience to events both natural and human created. Sun warmed air on skin, the sound of birdsong, music. All are sensory experiences that have harmonics that resonate with my own soul sound."
What brings you joy? "Anything and everything, even the space of no thing in particular. As small as a dust mote caught in a sun beam, to a vast sky seemingly empty of clouds. Every moment of every breath to be savoured and celebrated."
How would you like to be remembered? "To be remembered as a kind and unconditional woman, who loved and was loved by those who knew of her."
Â
Become a Featured Artist at D31 Art Gallery!