THE ARTISM OF DONNA WILLIAMS
By Donna Williams
Congratulations (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2002)
The Departure (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
The Audience (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2002)
Obssession (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
Storm In A Tea Cup (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
Before (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2002)
Becoming (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
Therapist (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
The Shower (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
Islands of Ability (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2002)
Sensing (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
Sleeping (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2002)
If (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2002)
The Music of Eingness (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
Out In The Bush (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
Simply Be (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
Lounging Writer's Block (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
On Ice (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
The Wall (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2002)
The Search (The Wombat) (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
Private Society (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2002)
Painting (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
Relevance (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
The Lovers (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2002)
Dormant (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2003)
Teddy Bear (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2002)
The Gadoodleborger (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2002)
Stealing The Moon (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
The Mirror (Exposure) (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
Rescue (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2004)
Briskly (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2003)
Whoa (Artwork by Donna Williams, 2002)
Artist's Statement: 'Self' is often a four letter word. We confuse self-ownership with withdrawal or selfishness, instead, expecting each other to give, to save and rescue, to carry and teach from a self we have often barely known. We make saints out of what we call self-less martyrs, building a society in which an often disabling co-dependency is promoted as 'normality'. We socialise our children into a judgemental and polarised world where all is either good or evil, and take as 'normal' the inherited habit of projecting onto others all we hate or wish about our mostly unknown inner selves. We promote the consumption of images, icons, archetypes and labels and fashion pigeon holes for ourselves and call this clothing 'selfhood'. Even our reactive conformist non-conformity is co-opted and streamlined by commercialism.
I was an child with more labels than a jam jar; called crazy, thought deaf, labelled disturbed, diagnosed 'Autistic'. Unable till late childhood to receptively access the world of interpretive meaning, I excelled instead in the undervalued animalistic skill of sensing pattern, theme and feel. 'Meaning blind' to the surface meaning of facial expression, body language, even the connection of words to the visual world, I looked through everyone and everything, mapping patterns with my body. I merged with colour, form and texture, resonating with these to the heights of manic oblivion, to the calm still depths of self hypnosis in which any conscious connection to my surface self no longer existed': I felt people's 'edges': those with walls, brittleness and staccato-like knee-jerk reactiveness, those full of bubble and contagious fluffy edges they couldn't contain, and those in whom the 'surface self' was jarringly out of sync with the 'being self' I sensed within them. I knew people by how they sat inside their bodies, how their feet impacted the floor as they crossed a room, the feel with which they picked up a glass. People were like visual music interacting in a symphony of daily life.
As a sculptor, I paint sculpturally; I feel and intuit form rather than judge visually. I let the inner worlds of my characters speak louder than their surface selves, often without the distraction of their surroundings, facial expression, clothing or other cladding, the colours, form, texture and feel as important as the subject. The subtle 'music of beingness' within my characters speaks to the viewer like the essence of dreams; the primal concepts from which their own storylines are born. I sculpt from feel rather than vision, my hands tell me when something is 'done'. Like the formless clay, my paintings often begin as a mass of abstract shapes on canvas out of which my characters appear to carve themselves then progressively call into being the surroundings from which they have emerged. My job as the artist is to facilitate and dialogue with, rather than overly judge, criticise or interfere with, that process. Art, music and writing have taught me that peace is the balanced acceptance of chaos. My work derives from some strange internal dance between two equally powerful forces: passion and stillness. In holding back from conscious judgement, something wonderful grows organically from a preconscious state and I'm along for the adventure. What was once incomprehensible before me, finally sidesteps the directness of the conscious mind to speak evocatively more directly, more universally, to the sensual, feeling self, when fully realised in a tangible form. In 'beingness' there is no judgement, only what 'is'.
Welcome to the adventure ... -- Donna Williams *)
About the Artist Donna Williams
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Donna Williams was born in Australia in 1963 and grew up in the inner city with more labels than a jam jar. Like many people born in the 1960’s and before, she was not diagnosed with Autism until adulthood. As well as being an artist, sculptor and composer she is also an internationally best-selling author with 8 published books in the field of Autism, including three text books and well known public speaker. Her first of four Autobiographical works, Nobody Nowhere, dramatically altered the Autism field. Her first two bestselling books are currently under option by a Hollywood film company. After 13 years living in the UK she now lives back in Australia with her husband Chris. Some of her books include: Prose: Nobody Nowhere: The Remarkable Autobiography of an Autistic Girl, (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1992), Somebody Somewhere: Breaking Free from the World of Autism, (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1994), Like Colour to the Blind: Soul Searching and Soul Finding, (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1999), Everyday Heaven: Journeys Beyond the Stereotypes of Autism, (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2004), Not Just Anything: A Collection of Thoughts on Paper, (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2004), Autism and Sensing: The Unlost Instinct, (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1998) and Exposure Anxiety, (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2005). |
[Above] Photo of Donna Williams by photographer unknown, 1995.
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Thylazine No.11 (June, 2006) |
