Alei Williams

What is your professional name? Where were you born and does that place still influence you? Where do you live now and how does that place influence you? Do you have family, friends, or fellow artists who support you in your work, life and art making and how do they make a difference in your life?

My professional name is Alei Williams. I was born on Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. It does not influence my work or myself. I was born there and then continued to travel a lot due to my father being a service member in the Army.

I currently live in Fayetteville, North Carolina. This place influences me because I am surrounded by a variety of different cultures due to Ft. Bragg Army Base. Also, I like to create work that is influenced by some of the events and issues in my surroundings. My family and friends do support my work. At first, I liked to keep my collective work to myself and I did not show or discuss my work with anyone except my mother and brother. Art has made such an overall impact on my life. I would not be who I am without art. I look at everything from color, shape, space, texture, and concept as art. Life has influenced my work by incorporating things others or I have experienced. Showing these experiences in my work has helped me express my emotions more elaborately.

When and how did you start making art? Can you describe the time when you first realized that creating was something you absolutely had to do? Why do you make art now? How has your work changed or developed over time? What are you trying to communicate with your art?

I started creating and experimenting with art at the age of three. Growing up as a kid I faced the challenge of dealing with a condition called Erbs Palsy that affected the general movement of my arm. My Papa helped me with maintaining my physical therapy and gaining my full range of motion in my arm by placing crayons, pens, and pencils in my hand for me to draw. By him doing this, I gained back my full range of motion and overcame the challenge of being disabled and not being able to use my arm. And with his help, I discovered my love for art. By grade school, I realized that art was a part of me. I got in trouble with my elementary school teachers for looking out the window and drawing what I saw rather than being attentive in class. My mother then

noticed my gift and placed me in studio art classes. There I learned different techniques to express myself through art.

I make art now, for both the love of it, and to create conceptual pieces that reflect society and the issues facing minorities, and more specifically, minority women. My work has progressively changed as I deal with more mature concepts. I now use more vibrant colors, and the work is more complex. My artwork has increased in physical size along with the concepts. For instance, the artwork Cotton Blossom is 30” x 80”. Before, I would only work in one medium at a time. But now, I thrive using mixed media within one piece. I love to use a lot of texture and it is prevalent in my work. With my art I am initiating a conversation on various social issues that affect the African American community and more specifically, how these issues affect African American women.

Do you have any creative patterns, routines or rituals associated with your art making? What element(s) of art making do you enjoy the most and why? What is your most important artist tool(s) and why? How do you know when a work is finished? What are the art making tools you use now? What new creative medium would you love to pursue?

Within my work I love to create texture and manipulate images by placing them one on top of the other to create collage forms. I also love the overall layering process. Whether that is drawing, painting, or mixed media. While I create, I listen to music that reflects my emotions or is based on the social issues I want to address. It makes me think more deeply about my concept so I can better reflect what I want to communicate to the viewer . I enjoy texture, color, and movement when creating or looking at art. Texture adds depth, dimension, and perspective to art. Whereas color can express emotion and can be combined to create harmony in art. I also like movement in art because it creates direction for a viewer’s eyes to move.

My most important artist tools are pencil and Sharpie. I love to sketch and create an overall skeleton of my work with them. I typically know when my artwork is done after I have shared my concept and reworked any issues with my piece by asking for critiques from my fellow classmates. But I also know that it is finished when I feel I have communicated my concept and I feel immensely proud of my work. I use acrylic and oil paint on canvas, sharpies, paint brushes, etc. However, I am always looking at new art and new techniques and ways to create works of art. A medium I would love to pursue would be digital. I have not experienced or explored making work with digital art.

What's the first artwork you ever sold? Do you make a living from your art? What strategies could you share with other artists on how to become successful professionally?

The first artwork I ever sold was a drawing for a tattoo for one of my fellow classmates while in high school. And I would love to professionally make a living from my art. I want to exhibit nationally. I am continuously learning about what makes an artist become successful professionally. The best advice I can give to someone is to never give up on

your craft, and always go to museums and exhibits to see what is relevant. But more than ever, take one step forward and do not stop taking more steps.

What are your goals for the future, for both work and life? What interesting project are you working on at the moment?

My goals for the future are to become a major contemporary artist and to have my work featured in New York and California. One day I want to be a part of historical African American Art museums such as the one in Washington DC. I would love to teach children art, and show them how to express themselves through art.

Right now, I am sketching a piece that is related to the death rates of African American women in hospital delivery rooms while giving birth. I think it is important to expand the conversation on this topic and about our health care system in general. Is this death rate due to negligence or underlying health issues?

What or who inspires you? Do you have a favorite – or influential – living artist? What work of art do you wish you owned and why?

My environment and being an African American woman inspire me. Women are constantly evolving and progressing in society, especially, when it comes to our voices being heard. However, within our society, the voices of African American women are not often reflected or heard.

Two artists who have influenced me and whose work I love would have to be Nelson Makomo and Kara Walker. I love how they express raw emotions through their work. They both elaborate on the intricate issues of the African and African American communities using various media in large scale.

A work of art that I wish I owned would be one of Claude Monet’s Waterlily Pond paintings. I enjoy how he uses light, texture, color, and movement all within his work. And I also like how he creates emotion within each piece that reflects a simple lily pond.

Where do you find ideas for your creative work? What does being creative mean to you? What is the best advice you ever had about how to be more creative?

Often I find my ideas looking at issues or aspects from nature that correlate to events that I or others have experienced. Being creative means creating something that reflects not only yourself but the inner being of yourself through any medium. Creativity means taking images that you would normally not use or see and remaking them in a way that matches your concepts or emotions. The best advice I have to give about being more creative, is to let loose and be free when creating. Everything is art or a form of design. It is also interesting to draw various sketches or rework things to make a piece more visually intriguing.

Cotton Blossom (Detail, left side)

Cotton Blossom (Detail, right side)

Cotton Blossom Collaged images, acrylic paint, oil paint, physical cotton on canvas