Emily Williams
About the Artist
Emily Williams is an artist local to the Columbus, GA area. She began creating at a very young age and has always had an affinity for painting in particular. Presently, Williams is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree at Columbus State University. Over the past couple of years, her content has grown to fall into a common theme. She takes everyday scenarios and alters them in order to change the message and importance of the action. Folklore, wordplay, wit, and discomfort are main themes that flow across Williams’ portfolio. She engages viewers with strange or disconcerting imagery meant to catch the eye and the mind.
Artist Statement
Emily Williams focuses on taking everyday scenarios and twisting them in a disturbing or witty way to either draw more attention to the action or to recreate it so that it now has an entirely different meaning from its original form. Making a phone call, mowing the
lawn, and other such actions are considered mundane and we do not think much of doing them. She finds a deep interest in exploring ideas about human folly, though she tends to create work that is apolitical. Word play, mythical creatures, folk lore, and distorted figures are common themes across her portfolio. People follow different beliefs and customs and have uniquely various cultures and personalities. By delving into these beliefs and customs of different peoples, she expands on what is “everyday” to other cultures and individuals as well. In Greek history, it was an everyday belief that the Three Fates of the Underworld were tasked with ending people’s lives when it was time
by cutting a thread that represented each individual’s life. Lifelines, therefore, is a piece based on this occurrence of death and the Fates having to cut off a person’s life. She works with acrylic painting, although other media do surface occasionally in her portfolio. She finds it is the medium that compels her most, as she can manipulate reality to however she sees fit. To be capable of creating an entire atmosphere that can be contained within the frame of a canvas intrigues her.
Williams's goal is to flesh out these worlds and creatures so as to give viewers a new perspective to look from, a new scenario to experience. Making a phone call is not a particularly engaging experience, but when your wall phone has a full set of organs inside it, then it becomes a new entity, a new action to make that call. This is the idea of creating new from old that she enjoys and want to present to others.