Neal Williams - 2013 Melvins - Atlanta Concert Poster. 0000004009 00000 n It's like Ken Ferguson at Kansas City Art Institute was talking aboutone of his lectures washe said, "I always encourage my students to find your"I'm paraphrasing "find your level of skill, go to that level of skill, and then back off about 10 percent, and work in that area because you get the maximum amount in a healthy space without imploding," so to speak. Because she spoke in gaps back then. And he had a really interesting background himself,, being an architect historian, ceramic historian, writer, and friends with the people he knew. She was like one of us. MIJA RIEDEL: So you started in the summer? I don't know. No. [Laughs.]. She nixed those, because she didn't have time for them. . Victor Building Mrs. Tremble. 0000020598 00000 n NEIL WILLIAMS: You mean, besides all the wonderful crazy friends I grew up with? I didn't feel her thrillshe was feeling that thrill about them. I never saw anything she was doing was morose. And, in retrospect, looking back on it, it's like it was prettyit's been pretty full. But she'd alsowe're doing these bricoleur, these junk pieces out of the cast molds, that I thought were absolutely fascinating. I noticed he was very accomplished and peaceful. 0000003606 00000 n NEIL WILLIAMS: because he worked so hard and so careful on it, but they looked magnificent. As an ambulance rushed him to the hospital, something unexpected happened. And, I also found it was really interesting because they werethey found themselves into collections of paintings and other paintings and sculptors that I really like, too. Read More. NEIL WILLIAMS: Similarities was a consistency of all figure workfigurative work, the male and female roles. NEIL WILLIAMS: I haven't had a lot of ugly. Like, he would earlier talk about you becoming a writer more so than a clay person because it wasit was essential to life's calling and consciousness. He was giving assignments to these little ladies. And it was two floors, and hundreds and hundreds of pieces. Pretty simple. This transcript has been lightly edited for readability by the Archives of American Art. Like, "Viola, it's really great, it's really beautiful, but if you did this, we'd save me a couple hours of work here." And so. ", NEIL WILLIAMS: Yeah. NEIL WILLIAMS: side. He is from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. She would sell what I gave hereverything I gave her and she would pay on time. And this is just a freshrelatively recent passing of alocal, prominent, prolific artist, NEIL WILLIAMS: female artist. <<76AC6049CDCC7740A1046EC4D186D560>]>> They were really good. And I always thought a good writer, just like a good painting or sculpture, should take you on a journey. She was very patient and shesized people up and, as far as what would be the best fit for Viola. You know, called out of the blue. NEIL WILLIAMS: I'm more inspired by just knowing that what I'm doing is right and okay. This interview is part of the Archives of American Art's Viola Frey Oral History Project. MIJA RIEDEL: and that he really had a poetic heart and spirit and that [the war had really MR] left its mark. Is that correct? There was just something delightfully twisted and humorous and perverse and edgy. But the tragedies thatthey're notI don't feel the PTSD that I used to. NEIL WILLIAMS: Yes, I went down there and my brother was living in Berkley. And I had never heard of it, never saw it. And he said, "The point was I want you to realize you have already grown beyond this point. NEIL WILLIAMS: Remember him? [Affirmative.] NEIL WILLIAMS: Spent time in some of Thiebaud's early workshops. Andyeah, I mean, even De Kooning had Alzheimer's. But not to be too simplistic. Mija Riedel has reviewed the transcript. Please if you have any form of concern, suggestions, or query as regards this publication, kindly contact us. MIJA RIEDEL: Or a challenge, because it brings the work into a different perspective. Consider following President Eyrings example, Elder Andersen told students. It filledI think what it is, the youngest of four boys, by the time I came around, my mother had nothing left [Laughs.]. And then you practice. She liked being around the school. I've stuck with a theme for a long time. Oh, it's a great little photo. NEIL WILLIAMS: Oh my God, right herethat's a whole other disc I think. One of those classic, magnificent madams that happened to be a teacher. [Affirmative.] And like I said also, he was the first one to encourage Peter Voulkos to hand build when he was at Arts and Crafts in the '50s. Neil Williams was a top jockey, I remember him winning premierships in Brisbane, was the top rider there. MIJA RIEDEL: making things happen that wouldn't happen elsewhere. And then I realizedlet go of that and just realized by turning inside and making nice work, making good work, in a very, very small way, can do that. MIJA RIEDEL: Interesting, because she made such a clear distinction between her own work and pottery. But Viola and I used to banter back and forth a little bit. NEIL WILLIAMS: and it was built by a horticulture professor at U.C. Mm-hmm. MIJA RIEDEL: Mm-hmm. And, like I said, the exposure and the whole role of gallery and public places, it completes the circle of experience for an artist. NEIL WILLIAMS: Good and bad and indifferent, so. 0000114555 00000 n Brilliant. Net Worth in 2019. NEIL WILLIAMS: Have you seen the photograph of her in the closet with all of the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of the little figurines and things that she had, NEIL WILLIAMS: she had hoarded? NEIL WILLIAMS: There are no profound "Oh my God, I need to do a 90-degree or a 180 on something.". NEIL WILLIAMS: There'sit's like, and then one of my brother says, "Hey, I saw your piece in a show in the de Young Museum." Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaks during the campus devotional in the Marriott Center on the BYU campus in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023. And then he also, with his extraordinary knowledge, helped to give some context. And so we'd have them all numbered and ready to go, but we'd put the show up in a few hours and they were likeeveryone was happy and purring and ready for a reception after that. NEIL WILLIAMS: Yeah. But I like them. All this stuff can be going on around you in the world, and things falling apart or celebrating. So let's start witha description of this fantastic place that you have. His tangents were always really fascinating to me, when he would go off onand then, he would just run out of gas and say, "There; I'm done. I want them to have energy, maybe a little figure reference, maybe some structural reference. Who do you complain to? My memory is a bit hazy bit i recall going to warwick farm one day. NEIL WILLIAMS: And Rena was being very encouraging too, so I thought, "Okay, I'll just go with it for a while. So, it was a double major. Yeah, so, but that's just another recent friendship that's been real important. Wyong - Clickety clack, the Pumper's back. That's why a lot of those people end up with thoseI mean, it's work, it's hard, I know, but the comfort zones of teaching. ", NEIL WILLIAMS: And it worked and it made sense, so. NEIL WILLIAMS: Well, it was in herin relation to how she loved being around students, and how it filled a kind of a void for her. Rising weight means most male jockeys have to waste around the time they end their apprenticeships and lose their appeal to trainers. The biggest of them exist on starvation diets that seem to shrivel brains, as well as bodies. And, like I say, thrown, but I get them off the wheel as soon as possible to reshape and rework them. I don't want that to be too decorative. But that wasn't my interest. 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. MIJA RIEDEL: We were talking about episodes or periods of work. [Laughs.] NEIL WILLIAMS: So, I stuck with it. And nobody's tried tobecause they're such a royal pain in the ass to make. xb```"6F= ac`a&qpcaFSn`@I9Oz%uG E f[lvu>qfdn){sRiR & vtt40 NEIL WILLIAMS: So, there was physicality. He relates a really great story that exemplifies this. And just keep them interesting for yourself." I have even told the story of the world's tallest building. . NEIL WILLIAMS: She liked looking more at images than reading. You know. But those kinds of thingstalk about being surrounded by angels. And, I think it helped me growing up here a lot, to be able to go to off to school, or to be able to relate to such a variety of different people successfully. The burden lies on the student to learn." WebHis death has revived memories of another top jockey, sadly lost to racing in similar circumstances a few years ago. And she was tenacious. 0 Where are we going?" NEIL WILLIAMS: Yeah. And we're so full of ourselves now, like we've invented shit. He could go off and explode and it could be pretty scary. But, I know they were very affectionate, too. I want to make something"because if he gets anxieties or, if he starts getting PTSD or whatever he's"sitting and making," he says that does it for him immediately. This is an old photo thing we found cleaning up, of just old pots that I was. MIJA RIEDEL: And whathowwere they all relatively low fire? It was a nice little fit for me, because it was able to keep it alive and interesting, and keep the sharks swimming forward, so to speak. Or Patterson coming into Viola's life after meeting Rena? MIJA RIEDEL: But the principal and art teacher encouraged you to use it and then you'd cart the work over to. Interviewee Neil Williams (1959- ) is an artist from Auburn, California. It was a thank-you note from Joan Mondale, who'd just visited her studio and wascouldn't believe what she saw. He didn't deserve it. MIJA RIEDEL: Okay. He has the rare ability able to look at any project from a broad perspective and solve the problems that need solving, while always retaining an infectious passion for steering creative work of the highest standard. She was a little nervous of whether she was going to have that kind of aand I said, "Absolutely, we wouldn't miss it." Or does [. I started doing it around her after a while. NEIL WILLIAMS: or at least proposes thosesuggests those. She wanted to keep things focused on her, and her work, and her love of color and form, and her images, andsoand also, it kept her isolated in a sense that sheunless you had something to do with the direct aspect of production of her work, or assisting in that, youshe didn't haveshe had little time or energy for. There's a great one. And so, that was just overwhelming to me, that some of those same people wereI mean, like, Betty Asher and her cup fetish, NEIL WILLIAMS: that Asher formand I remember, because meeting her through installing Viola's show and realizing she had the cup fetish, and, "Oh my gosh, I make little cups." So yeah, there's hours and hours and hours of carving, sanding and painting on each piece. MIJA RIEDEL: When I look at the list of different galleries you've been affiliated with over 20 or 30 years, there are many galleries, [that included your work MR] in a group show here or a group show there. N-O-E-L, L-O-U-G-H-L-I-N. NEIL WILLIAMS: It's been 40, 40-plus-year friendship. MIJA RIEDEL: Mm-hmm. NEIL WILLIAMS: Yes, she was there, and she hadI remember the first day of class was the morning after Richard Behrens, the glaze guru, the elderly gentleman, the wonderfulhad passed away. 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. NEIL WILLIAMS: And those are the ones that werejust those golden experiences because they werethey completed the circle of experience for an artist. What kinds of connections in order to keep you fueled up and keep you resourcing? So wheels? MIJA RIEDEL: What kinds of storieswere they related to politics, or gender, or social issues, personal narratives? We talked about him a little yesterday. You know, that kind of a thing. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers. 0000000016 00000 n So, he was very involved with the light railway station down there, and he alsothere's a series of domes, a cluster of domes over here that were built, NEIL WILLIAMS: some time ago, over. WebThis website contains horse racing systems, staking plans and many articles about Australian horse racing of interest to gamblers WebWe would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. [Where Do We Come From? 0000053116 00000 n MIJA RIEDEL: Now were you the only assistant at the time, Neil? And when I started meeting them and seeing their collections, it was like, "Oh my goodness." MIJA RIEDEL: How did you see that evolve? The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site. Please join us to mourn the passing of Neil Williams. NEIL WILLIAMS: Art critic writers, I don't know, they didn't reallythey lose me after a while. MIJA RIEDEL: And it was always clearly clay? I really was never motivated to doing the solo show thing. "Paul Baker - Executive Creative DirectorThe Marketing Practice, "I have worked with many different Creative Directors at a variety of top agencies, and Neil is one that I would definitely recommend. A certain honesty and sincerity that it demands. She made us do, like, a wildflower collection, so we learned all about genus and species, the whole- and she was justI remember her of all of those elementary school teachers. Williams was Viola Frey's studio assistant. As a senior manager at The Brand Union, Middle East, he has been a continual source of inspiration to the team with his wry sense of humour and built-in positivity. NEIL WILLIAMS: The idea of interior and exterior, MIJA RIEDEL: That makes sense right here. NEIL WILLIAMS: And I never wanted to get to that point. Cause of death Details of the circumstance surrounding our beloved, Neil Williamsdeath is not public yet, we will share more as we learn. And I knowI remember also that it was funny because they knew how magnificent she was and how much, I mean, Manuel wanted to trade with her and shethey knew there was something really, really special there. 0000001707 00000 n I know it's probably wrong, and a lot of people will take themselves out of a direct experiencea rich experience in life by trying to apply reason to figuring out why we are here. MIJA RIEDEL: Oh, okay. And that was my skill thatI mean we all have our saving graces. ", NEIL WILLIAMS: And it's like, and I never forgot that. I'm feeling much better.". Okay. I needed anything." So what it was doingshe pointed it out to meof course I was young and navewell, you'reit's a three-dimensional canvas, because if you cut that out and laid it out flat, you'd have a two-dimensional painting. And Viola was the same way. NEIL WILLIAMS: Andalways incredible number one supportive of. He says that, "Volume has gone to her paintings, and the plates were the bridge." I never worried about it working on a spiritual level, because if it does that for somebody else, like we talked about the apples on a table, that's great. I wasn'tit wasn't driven like Viola was, or so many other artists, you know. So, some of the other galleries wereI mean, they were okay to deal with. [Affirmative.] NEIL WILLIAMS: But it was funny, because she would get so scattered that she would almost like self-implode on the verbiage. I know they're getting good, you know, for myself. 0000007053 00000 n NEIL WILLIAMS: And she's like, she would say, "This is our thing, Neil." MIJA RIEDEL: How were you first exposed to clay? MIJA RIEDEL: Was there a sense of humor or spirit of playfulness in her work? NEIL WILLIAMS: Yeah. NEIL WILLIAMS: But I didn't think she got that excited about them. There can bethey can get really good quality if you get connected with the right person. NEIL WILLIAMS: She wasn't committed to it, but she was gracious enough to encourage me, and help. So, that could bea metaphor for such. I'll remember. [Affirmative.] MIJA RIEDEL:sides, but are theredo you also see it in any kind of terms, episodes, or periods that were distinct? Fun, she loves celebrating life, and always likes to have fun and pushes me to do things and get out of my comfort zone that I wouldn't normally do. But he did it elsewhere. Like I said, she was also Viola's lifeline, I know, too. NEIL WILLIAMS: And the irony about itfast forwardthis does relate. ), digital, wav; 101 Pages, Transcript. NEIL WILLIAMS: I wasn't there, but I think that's whathe came in and out of consciousness; he said it was hard"There she is!" MIJA RIEDEL: That's a point worth making, because you haven't had a regular teaching job, you haven't had a regular, MIJA RIEDEL: It doesn't seem like there's a regular production pottery practice either, so. NEIL WILLIAMS: And, one of my bothers was creative, who passed away. MIJA RIEDEL: Did you grow up in Auburn itself? Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user's experience more efficient. 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. So straight line, you've got analytics and rational architecture and structure. But she wasin the middle of all that, she was just a delightfully crazy person and artist [Laughs.]. Milking the cows Pretty much verbatim. MIJA RIEDEL: Anybody you care to mention? Behind him are BYU students who shared testimonies and experiences during his address. But he says, "Find that one small thing to look forward to every day." NEIL WILLIAMS: I think by the time he had finished he was in every major museum in the world, Whitney Biennial multiple times, Venice Bienalle. Yeah, and I have a special connection with some, too. They're quietly sneaking in the back door of some really nice places.". MIJA RIEDEL: '77, from Auburn High School. NEIL WILLIAMS: Let's put it that way. Neal Currey likes to say adventure is in his blood. Beautiful form. At certain times I question, "Oh my gosh. NEIL WILLIAMS: And she was very encouraging, but sheher quip was "Eventually, you can go back and get your masters, and I can send you anywhere in the country for graduate school on my recommendation." 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. So, an earthquake happened a couple months later. 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