That was from when she was studies at U.C. You distill the depth of the experience if you conceive too long, or too much, or at all. And she could work so long, and then the next morning, it was like she was right back into it. . NEIL WILLIAMS: Yeah. The way you're describing it, it's clearly been there for years and years and years. NEIL WILLIAMS: Uh-huh. The onesI'm still in touch in with the high school art teacher. And I said, "Viola, it was a compliment. Because I had been back up here, but I would go back to help. So, if that gets into a spiritual phenomenon, then that makes sense to me. At certain times I question, "Oh my gosh. I mean, he's the one who talked about diachronic and synchronic time. I mean, Viola didn't necessarily go off on abstract tangents that were required a lot of slick verbiage to flush it out. NEIL WILLIAMS: Not the work, especially like itself, but thethere's not a lot of angst anymore in making the work. NEIL WILLIAMS: He would write stuffI mean, I'd find little notes all over the place, little critiques about, you know. And then he passed away. And not that they're paying off,in terms of popularity or sales or any of that stuff. MIJA RIEDEL: Placer High School, okay. Not. NEIL WILLIAMS: It's right across from the Veteran's Cemetery. I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no, I blame it on Dr. Seuss, that's who I blame it on. And there were some of those sections, were 150 pounds and they were 10 feet in the air, all in sections, and I had pull them apart without breaking or chipping anything, get down the ladder, get them in the kiln. MIJA RIEDEL: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. The good, the bad, and the ugly. MIJA RIEDEL: They were more of an experiment with a new material [. He tried to get him to come back more, and I'm sure it contributed to him getting further out there, and eventuallyyou know his tragedy. NEIL WILLIAMS: Oh, such a variety, yeah, conceptual. And then he called one day and said, "Neil, I'm opening a little small gallery in Carefree, outside of Scottsdale. He relates a really great story that exemplifies this. NEIL WILLIAMS: And she thought that was a great way to start unlocking and getting thethose agents that are bound up in a creative psyche or in an emotional, personaldam, or whatever was locked up. So, an earthquake happened a couple months later. And the fool wouldn't take them. NEIL WILLIAMS: So, those kinds of things, and mysteries, you know, I like mysteries. What do I do now? She was very active, and I really was grateful for what she did for me. NEIL WILLIAMS: There have been lulls, but I've always known it's okay to just keep working through them. Cause of death Details of the circumstance surrounding our beloved, Neil Williamsdeath is not public yet, we will share more as we learn. ], MIJA RIEDEL: But in the past would that be something that would. And you should be changed by it. And Ralph Bacerra was there because he was Michael's instructor. NEIL WILLIAMS: There's a very heartwarming story about her, about her vulnerability, too. It was very liberating accepting that putting myself into a period or a point that it's, like good art should ask more questions than it answers. And Viola was there in the ceramics department? I was telling him about Maria Martinez the other day. NEIL WILLIAMS: and she got them in there. "Well here, let me send you something." I don't know why. MIJA RIEDEL: This is Mija Riedel with Neil Williams at the artist's home and studio in Auburn California on June 6, 2014 for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, card number two. Monday-Friday, excluding Federal holidays, by appointment. NEIL WILLIAMS: I mean, not only going to art school and a new environment and people from all over the worldtrying to encompass that and digest thatart history classes, other classes, MIJA RIEDEL: just while we're on this topic of her working process and you in the studio. Parents owned the local feed store. "No, art is about art!" ", NEIL WILLIAMS: I like that feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day, of exhaustion that you've given, and you've been able toespecially working with clay, you manifest something out of nothing but a ball of mud. Your email address will not be published. Many trials come not because of anything an individual did or didnt do. I really was never motivated to doing the solo show thing. Anything you woke up thinking about when the owl woke you up at about two o'clock in the morning? It was the largest sculpture I think ever that year in Europe," or something like that. And if someone else wanted to pick up andat their end, and if they wanted 50 percent of what I do, then they, it would have to be right. You'll be redirected to related page soon Don't have an account? Where Are We Going?, 1897-1898]. NEIL WILLIAMS: and she seemed to intuitively know how to handle her and what would be the best way for her. 0000004841 00000 n What else did you see, while you were there, as significant influences on her or her work? So Iwhere I'm trying to think about Noguchi, talking about his time element and carving away, and how itthe all-consuming and meditative. It's primordial, it's playful. MIJA RIEDEL: making things happen that wouldn't happen elsewhere. NEIL WILLIAMS: But she also said there was nothing wrong with good pots. But didn't pursue it herself. [Affirmative.] Which year? AndI mean I can't imagineI saw itthe stress of having to come up with newness and having the eyes on you, and you do something and they'd write a book on you. Neils older brothers, Gary and Lee, became chef and chief barman there. He likes doing ceramics, just simple little things on the wheel. But I was happy. MIJA RIEDEL: Okay. . It can help to enrich their lives no matter what their major is. NEIL WILLIAMS: It's nottrying to figure out where I fit in, or how I see it fitting in, Iyou got to leave that to the dealers and the critics and the museums, and all of that. She understood her. And he's trying to pull the plate away, and she's growling at him, and she's got her arms around the doughnut and it's likeI said, "Oh Charles, I don't know", [END OF TRACK william14_1of3_sd_track01. So he would keep the conception always around her. I was just a kid. "No." And I didn't doubt it. But she wasin the middle of all that, she was just a delightfully crazy person and artist [Laughs.]. But the lack of detail in thatthe simplicity of it just being this eruption of massive form and color, right in your face. MIJA RIEDEL: would she talk to you, show you books? There's a natural, I think, instinctive connection most people have with it. ", NEIL WILLIAMS: And then Viola would say, "The hardest part is the first hour in the studio, getting there and getting it generated, and warming up and getting to work. [Affirmative.] Any agency would be lucky to have him. But I feel like people who go to the prophets, they go to other people of faith, and that can end up strengthening their faith when they feel like theyre slipping., For Macee Pickup, social media can also be a tool for good as she tries to fill her feed with uplifting quotes and insights or share messages with people, she said. NEIL WILLIAMS: The idea of interior and exterior, MIJA RIEDEL: That makes sense right here. NEIL WILLIAMS: there. In their scalein terms of their scale alone, yeah. NEIL WILLIAMS: And then I would worktry and work on my own or have energy to do my own work. I mean, I always think of that wonderful Gauguin painting, Tahitian women on the beach." MIJA RIEDEL: Okay. Any follow-up thoughts from the conversation last night? There's athere can be a, MIJA RIEDEL: It starts off feeling so personal. I think thatfor me, when she started doing the larger works and the color fields, I didn't feel the emotional connection that she had with them before. I think that's actually an interesting [aspect of MR] a working relationship. Andbut he was a mad cobbler because he was a shoeleather and shoe smith, and we'd call him the mad cobbler. She was very patient and shesized people up and, as far as what would be the best fit for Viola. . Berkley? They're quietly sneaking in the back door of some really nice places.". NEIL WILLIAMS: And that's why I think thatCharles' point, when he was talking about her being a cottage artist, and not a big palace artist, where there's awhole dedication ceremony that goes along with it publicly. And I was able toevery good piece I've made since I was 14 I've sold. Create your account , it takes less than a minute, Dont let the game play you; gamble responsibly. And then, their influence, because Viola, and being around her, looking at art history, falling in love with everyone from Kandinsky to Gorky to Rothko. . 750 9th Street, NW And Viola said, "Yes," she yelled, "Yes, that's true." And they said, "Ah, I've decided I'm going to be a painter." 0000116276 00000 n NEIL WILLIAMS: That's ifso if they weren't just a pair of banal, NEIL WILLIAMS: things standing there with some splashes of color on them. But, he wouldn't go to openings. NEIL WILLIAMS: We had spoken earlier evenMark Twain and H.P. Copyright in all R&S materials is owned by Racing and Sports Pty Ltd (R&S). Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Neil Williams, 2014 June 5-6. Represent employers and employees in labour disputes, We accept appointments from employers to preside as chairpersons at misconduct tribunals, incapacity tribunals, grievance tribunals and retrenchment proceedings, To earn the respect of the general public, colleagues and peers in our our profession as Labour Attorneys, The greatest reward is the positive change we have the power to bring to the people we interact with in our profession as Labour Attorneys, Website Terms and Conditions |Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy|Sitemap |SA Covid 19 Website, This website uses cookies to improve your experience. MIJA RIEDEL: Real architectural quality, too. . We were going to continue the conversation about community with a couple other friends. And I also remember something funny about the Thomas Albright. I was actually working still with drawing and painting, but with only clay and marks and light and shadow, and not paint and pencil. NEIL WILLIAMS: But that's whomy childhood friend Noel Loughlin who I mentioned was theunfortunate accident is. Finally, where do you see your work fitting into contemporary art? Really enlightened. NEIL WILLIAMS: And expanded when she moved her studio down to Eighth Street [ph] to larger electric kilns with whole series with hydraulic hoists and rolling kiln floors and anything to try and get some of the stress off of me and, NEIL WILLIAMS: make her work more fluid, because I knew that there was a finite time that I could have. Great stories about Thiebaud he had, and he was just such a positive guy thatit was very impactive on my life and my interests and becomingbut I knew immediately, as soon as I started working with clay at 14 years old, what I wanted to do and what I was going to do. He's got an incredible history, and he certainly deserves more attention for his work and for being a great professor of ceramics. May you find comfort knowing that life continues forever in heaven even as the memories shared live forever in our hearts. Lots of private, local patrons and. 0000003077 00000 n 0000010881 00000 n N-O-E-L, L-O-U-G-H-L-I-N. NEIL WILLIAMS: It's been 40, 40-plus-year friendship. She didn't press her to accept an offer from another gallery in New York right away. . There's a lot of differentso I think the big influence and motivation, inspiration, is feeling my life being simpler, and the work being, like I said, cleaner in a way. MIJA RIEDEL: Mm-hmm. [. MIJA RIEDEL: Or a challenge, because it brings the work into a different perspective. That was very wise of her. But they make sense. 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. NEIL WILLIAMS: You know, like I said, we all perceive the same object differently, so. She wasn'tshe was really good but she wasn't like a gallery dealer. But not to be too simplistic. 0000007465 00000 n I don't know how to describe it. And I've been really fortunate. 0000030898 00000 n Berkeley.". But it wasshe was soamped up on what she was able to do. NEIL WILLIAMS: But, she wasjust extraordinary and raw, pure energy and just that her tenacious way she devoured images and devoured the process of making stuff and working with color and form, and fluidly between two and three dimensional like that was really rare. MR] about Viola's plates, or the bronzes. Okay. New York,NY10010, Dedicated to collecting and preserving the papers and primary records of the visual arts in America, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2023 Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Terra Foundation Center for Digital Collections, Guidelines for Processing Collections with Audiovisual Material, Washington D.C. Headquarters and Research Center, Publications Using Material from the Archives of American Art, Oral history interview with Neil Williams, 2014 June 5-6. Well, there is an amazing history in this gold rush area of inventive people taking off and. MIJA RIEDEL: Did you grow up in Auburn itself? I'm feeling much better.". NEIL WILLIAMS: And that happened on occasion. NEIL WILLIAMS: And we all have our angels but, you know, Viola had hers. NEIL WILLIAMS: But at the same time, she certainly relied on andI know she appreciated my help. It's not art." NEIL WILLIAMS: I'm feeling much better, thank you. xb```"6F= ac`a&qpcaFSn`@I9Oz%uG E f[lvu>qfdn){sRiR & vtt40 Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites. NEIL WILLIAMS: Otherwise we're isolated, lonely, horrific souls, NEIL WILLIAMS: but they were so always nervous about public aspect of it, if you'reI think an artist individual, and you're not really prone to drawing attention to yourself. Duchamp was right, it can be a drug for a lot of people throughout history. So, I don't really think about, like, proper gallery representation or anything like that anymore. Violayou suggest and you try and have ahelp guide her. NEIL WILLIAMS: Story telling was really important to her, and she talked about that. [END OF TRACK william14_2of3_sd_track02. I mean, Jason Rhoades came out of that, another really important artist that you should look into. He could go off and explode and it could be pretty scary. I got to see you. You became her assistant in '77? NEIL WILLIAMS: graduated with honors and all of that and found clay to fill the void thatbut it filled it in a wonderful, wonderful way. We encourage you all to respect the dead and accord the family heartbroken with the loss of a cherished one, some privacy as you leave a message in the comment session. Again, put yourself in a healthy working space, establish your maximum level of skill, or your maximum, and then work at 98, 95 percent of that. But they just quietlylike Viola was saying, "The little cups are looking good, Neil. He was volatile, and scary. Racing and Sports is a Registered Trademark. We can send them to wherever school. Is the material the most appropriate used to articulate that intent? And, he has an extraordinary collection. And then,what kind of support systems are out there for you? In the meantime, she was producing stuff like crazy. [Affirmative.] And like I said, some of the most amusing moments is when he had vermouth in one hand and a cigarette in the other and he was ready to talk. But, there was stuff that got taken. They worked alone, and they were more isolationists. In high school, there were ceramics classes? And she was tenacious. Mm-hmm. MIJA RIEDEL: It's very much a cultural construct, to think it's not art. She was intoxicated by color and form, like one of theas any good art junkie could be. And that can come inartwork can come in a number of different facetshow you live your life, writing, how you influence, impact, socially, your circle; how you are remembered; or it can be through artwork. How do they survive and make a living? MIJA RIEDEL: I'm thinking culturallyhow you learned ceramics so early on and worked with a fellow who studied in Japan, the feeling about ceramic pots there is completely different. So that's what I thought I mean, you, being a writer, would know that great visualscan be great food for great writers, too. NEIL WILLIAMS: Yeah. In that way. He went to give some beautiful, huge Alechinsky paintingsoh, just masterpieces; 10-by-30-foot, 10-by-20-foot, extraordinary. NEIL WILLIAMS: We used to go out every Saturday to theor, every other Saturday to the Alameda Flea Market, where she collected all her littleher little images from a lot of. Format: Originally recorded as 5 sound files.Duration is 4 hr., 9 min. She thought that if more of them had this simple little formula, this simple little exercise might have helped in another crisis period in time that so many artists, I meanRothko, Van Gogh, Gorkywe lost all of them in a certain period of time, when they reach that crisis period. That's whatit originally started out, as a straight-line structural approach, the color, being the volume, to expand or contract that form. Davis trust. NEIL WILLIAMS: And in that great quote, he said he would start out carving on stone in the morning, and he would look up, and if he got into that zone, you know 14, 16 hours had gone by, and he wasn't thirsty, he wasn't hungry, he wasn't tired. NEIL WILLIAMS: And she thought in theIthe process of that was personalizing the image. And they always seem to have their rewards. longest barstool employees; nchsaa track and NEIL WILLIAMS: There's galleries that are rare and unique and have majesty to them. MIJA RIEDEL: You were working at the studio though, right? Through this experience I realized that Christ overcame everything and He overcame all of our pain and all of our suffering and He gave me so much peace through this experience., There is no need to be fearful about the tests of life, Elder Andersen said. NEIL WILLIAMS: So the perception and practiceI thinkI mean, Viola was there. [Laughs.] Brisbane Jockey Premiership Past Winners Year Winner 2015 Jim Byrne 2014 Michael Cahill 2013 Michael Cahill 2012 Chris Munce 2011 Chris Munce 2010 Stahthi Katsidis 2009 Scott Scriven 2008 NEIL WILLIAMS: Although they were pastel until fired, there's a certain projection you had to do and prediction. So, that could bea metaphor for such. But. NEIL WILLIAMS: Let's put it that way. If it doesn't, then, for me, it's still stayed alive and interesting. They surrounded her, and there was this big huddle, and then I guess they got her calmed down, and then she said a little something like "Okay, I'll," you know.