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name
Brad Williams
media
painting
education
Texas Tech University
BFA Studio Art: Painting, 2005
phone
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The job environment is instrumental in forming the large ideas found in my current painting. Forces in the daily work place lead to creative discoveries regarding the human condition. In my most recent works, I have found myself fascinated with the environment and people where I work.
I usually first decide upon a basic attitude that I want to convey in the work, triggered by current events, social situations, and a sense of the environments we find ourselves dealing with. My work searches for meaning in the relationship and expectations between the staff and customer. Often you have two strangers placed into very specific roles. A sort of tango develops during this dialogue of exchanged orders. The patron assumes control, while the waiter proceeds in an appeasing fashion. The server has to establish bounds on the freedoms of the patron by passively and persuasively leading him and at the same time, take the orders as a subordinate. While not wanting to be bothered, the customer expects perfection of goods, service, and attitude. Is this relationship inherent, or does it depend on individuals, moods, and environment? Does the consumer or clerk actually want to instigate this relationship?
This discourse inspires painting an emotional and intellectual dialogue. For me there is no difference between abstraction and representation. In order for either abstraction or figuration to succeed, the other must be present in some measure. What is important are the critical issues that turn inward in such a way as to make original statements. Personal experiences and attitudes towards the world lead to questions of ethical, personal, and spiritual matters which feed my need to paint; then my dark abstractions find light and their critical questions portray what I hope is a more humanistic art. My finished painting is an opinion, an emotion, and a cultural statement.