MIJA RIEDEL: There was a Spark episode that was about Viola. MIJA RIEDEL: Now would you take chainsaw, as well, or whatever the saw was that Sam was describing and cut them up that way? So we sat for a moment, and it was like, I didn't know what to say, and then he just looked at me andhe was very peaceful man. Only with an eternal perspective of Gods great plan of happiness can we ever find a more excellent hope. NEIL WILLIAMS: and activating the surface. And it was nice for her. ", NEIL WILLIAMS: But it's an intoxicant, like we had talked about it. 0000001707 00000 n MIJA RIEDEL: Well, tell it now, if you like? MIJA RIEDEL: You didn't grow up in Oakland? He went through and he critiqued everything and he said, "Now, tear it up." MIJA RIEDEL: We didn't talk at all, yesterday [. And, I understand she has since passed, but last I heard, there was an amazing cache of two floors or three floors of antiques and such that are kind of lying dormant. "It just takes a while to clean some of the dead wood out of those programs.". MIJA RIEDEL: Now, this definitely has that fetish finish feeling to it. NEIL WILLIAMS: No, certainly seeing the great European work. But. A year after that, the two were married in the Salt Lake Temple, now almost 48 years ago. And I let her go, and I said "Well," and then she would go, "Oh, so I'm wondering if you could come and unload the kiln and put the Red Woman together so it could be seen." And they thought it would bring about 17, it brought $39 million, and he took it all and he gave it toyou know, museums and charities, and he put it back in the arts. I mean, I've had some struggles having to do some production works sometimes, like on multiples but. How do you make that and buy yourself time and energy to do your work, your exploratory work, the celebration aspect of it? NEIL WILLIAMS: And so I was the youngest. NEIL WILLIAMS: She sawI think that she had some things going, and she saw that I hadI mean I was strong then. A unique soul with a great personality has an amazing sense of humour, diligent and caring. Gosh, who was there then, [Vernon] Coykendall, NEIL WILLIAMS: Boy, I can't think of who else was then. NEIL WILLIAMS: I remember being young and reading the Tao and how thatand that was an East Indian prophet, Gibran, Kahlil Gibran, reading those kind of things. NEIL WILLIAMS: It's nottrying to figure out where I fit in, or how I see it fitting in, Iyou got to leave that to the dealers and the critics and the museums, and all of that. And then we'll move onto the other. And he was the director of SACOG Council of Governments in Sacramento. MIJA RIEDEL: Did youand that that was part of that whole dynamic and part of what made it unusual? And then she would reneg on them, and then she would make them again, and then she woulddepending on how nervous she was about sales or what else was going on andI think she felt that it was one of those things she didn't want to lock herself into. ], MIJA RIEDEL: This is Mija Riedel with Neil Williams in the artist's home and studio in Auburn, California on June 6, 2014 for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. NEIL WILLIAMS: And it isand yeahIthat's got tothat's true. And, I was really, very, and profoundly appreciative of that. Duration is 4 hr., 9 min. NEIL WILLIAMS: Yeah, there you go. And, there's this big ritual behind it, and there's maybe 200 or 300 people captivated there and listening. They had an interna volunteer installing her plate collection, and there was, I don't know, 50, 60, 70-something plates. "You get here and we make a few things and I'm completely smoothed out." So, that's nice to have, especially from anyone. And they're still not quite, know why, but there's an electrochemical in the cells of the heart which causes it to beat. The first piece, you make as technically virtuoso as you can. Copyright in all R&S materials is owned by Racing and Sports Pty Ltd (R&S). You know, and I knew Rena was fascinated by her, and intrigued by her because she told me onceshe said that it was so interesting to look back when she was younger and to see how different her and Viola's lives where. Millions of dollars in painting. NEIL WILLIAMS: All the time. They were letting you know how magnificent your full-sized ashtray was." About a year later, he met Kathy Williams. Nothing. NEIL WILLIAMS: Him and his friend Nick Bishop, in a drunken stupor one night, conceived of them as the new county administration offices, because they needed new ones and they were completely inexpensive to build. However, that experience also helped her better understand the Saviors Atonement. WebWe would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. Other than Viola, of course. There was nothing real morose about her work. So she was very competitive, NEIL WILLIAMS: and competitive with other female artists too. NEIL WILLIAMS: And I think one of the greatit's very unusual I think for a dealer in that it wasn't about Rena. And so, and she, I think, got a lot of it. Racing and Sports is a Registered Trademark. So you would make pieces there. But I know he really fed her a lot of reinforcement in what she was doing. [Laughs. [Affirmative.] But at the same time, I try and push it a little bit each time so that theyI mean, I'm going to obliterate the image completely but, like I said, it has to stay alive and interesting. . Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Was it. NEIL WILLIAMS: That's ifso if they weren't just a pair of banal, NEIL WILLIAMS: things standing there with some splashes of color on them. What's your diet? MIJA RIEDEL: and you talked about how instrumental Rena was to Viola's career, what a difference her arrival in Viola's life seemed to make to getting her work out there. You became her assistant in '77? Hadlock related how her parents divorced when she was younger, which tested her faith. 0000008348 00000 n NEIL WILLIAMS: And Arlene LewAllen was the best. NEIL WILLIAMS: [Laughs.] [Affirmative.] BYU students sing at the closing of the weekly devotional with Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023. 0000053369 00000 n Maybe if you would walk me through how the work comes about. 0000016040 00000 n He said it was so bad. And so he had discipline of throwing and formulating on clay and materials; glazes and firing wood kilns and things that I was really fascinated with when I was young, because it was a great introduction to realizing how many different hatsI mean you have to be a chemist. [Affirmative.] NEIL WILLIAMS: So, I do a variety of other things. It was like he went to some mud fest in Philadelphia, God, long time ago. NEIL WILLIAMS: I could have gone either way. And some of those things I couldI mean I could reproduce when I was 16 years old and there wasthere was something easy about it and it didn'tI don't know. It was the largest sculpture I think ever that year in Europe," or something like that. MIJA RIEDEL: And would she workyou said she'd work on multiple pieces at once, correct? Otherwise we would havewhat would we have? NEIL WILLIAMS: And she always wanted them to go to the right collections and the right collectors andshe was justI don't know, she was areally unusual, because you don't hear that. Some of them were meant to be shooting stars, of course. 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 she actually then gave to this person as a gift. Where are we going?" And we became really good friendsbecause it wasn't just about working hard for her, it was about giving her a sounding board, and then we talked a lot about things outside of the arts, but, NEIL WILLIAMS: She saw that I wasI worked hard and I had a good discipline, and I got a good sense, I think, of what she was doing immediately. He's still an amazing guy, same sense of humor. It's incredible!" Is there any tradition involved in bolstering the success of that intent? NEIL WILLIAMS: And so, for me personally, I thought some of the larger pieces werethat they looked unfinished. Was there a wheel? There might be an analogy for that, that. And then he would pull back and he would he'd be fine, but. I remember one of the great stories about that, about making so much work wasoh my God, when she had an open party, like a little dinner party and Richard Shaw and Arneson and Manuel Neri had come and a bunch of other people, and Rena Bransten, and, of course, who luckily was repping her by then, NEIL WILLIAMS: Oh, because I just think it wasI just think the world of Rena and I. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages. Elder Andersen shared a quote by President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, who taught, Members who forgo Church attendance and rely only on individual spirituality separate themselves from these gospel essentials: the power and blessings of the priesthood, the fulness of restored doctrine, and the motivations and opportunities to apply that doctrine.. NEIL WILLIAMS: So, I think there was a physical aspect of it, that they were simplified into color field from some of the early detailed work, and I also think that there was a conscious effort, that she thought there was something more powerful on big blocks of color. She was like one of us. We can send them to wherever school. MIJA RIEDEL: You had an immediate facility with that, from the time you first touched it at 14, it sounds. But it should have something more than just being a painting or a sculpture. And it doesn't bother me. Neil is a thoroughly decent person who won't let you down and a creative without 'the attitude'' that so often comes with such talents. MIJA RIEDEL: There are a couple of columns, vase columns that we looked at that were, what, 12 feet tall, MIJA RIEDEL: from the late '90's. NEIL WILLIAMS: I understand that. So he would keep the conception always around her. Is the proper technique used to exemplify that intent to its maximum effectiveness? NEIL WILLIAMS: I made lots and lots of bowls, but I still like tothere's something just universally enriching about that. NEIL WILLIAMS:off the deep end, if Iyou know I used tothere was a period it was like I'd look and I'd see what other people were doing and the attention and the accolades and thesome other peopleand the independence and the ability that they had to explore because they could afford to then. And I always thought a good writer, just like a good painting or sculpture, should take you on a journey. But the processes are pretty simple, and rooted in the vessel. "But I'm not dead yet. NEIL WILLIAMS: So, I stuck with it. NEIL WILLIAMS: So, there was physicality. NEIL WILLIAMS: She admitted she would go nuts if she was just isolated in her studio full-time, if she didn't have that contact. "Having a solo show. NEIL WILLIAMS: I think it becameshe stillshe keptstill kept the great detail. And they were totally inefficient after the fact, but they conceived of them and instigated and had themgot them built. Okay. MIJA RIEDEL: What did she look for, Neil? NEIL WILLIAMS: Perceive an objectyou perceive your environment, youas you become an adult, you conceive how you're going to react to or embrace that object. Summary: An interview with Neil N. Williams conducted 2014 June 5-6, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's Viola Frey Oral History Project, at William's home and studio NEIL WILLIAMS: He said it was hysterical. . This site is maintained by Racing and Sports Pty Ltd (ABN 093 360 108) ("R&S"). The following oral history transcript is the result of a recorded interview with Neil Williams on 2014 June 5-6. So that was one of those round-about stories. Making something that had a physical presence stayed consistent throughout. MIJA RIEDEL: We were talking about episodes or periods of work. He was like, "You know, palace-and-cottage, it's likeMichelangelo was a palace artist; Van Gogh was a cottage artist." NEIL WILLIAMS: It was elusive; it was not subtle. And like I said, she was a hoarder of imagesI think Squeak once even called her the Mother of All Images. NEIL WILLIAMS: And all the way down, like here. MIJA RIEDEL: Not to digress, but a quick question: when I look at your work, I'm shocked that it doesn't crack in the firing process. NEIL WILLIAMS: Yeah. One artist was talking about art in the panel; she was talking about, "Art is about art" and was being very egocentric. She still was immediately drawn back to building things in clay, and painting, and doing the pastels, and junk pieces. NEIL WILLIAMS: And then I would worktry and work on my own or have energy to do my own work. I mean she'd give up anything to make art. NEIL WILLIAMS: Oh, writers, you know, all kinds of writers, yeah. SoI mean, I remember him saying, they were talking about Basquiat, you know, buying his early works and telling those guys, "Just leave him alone, he's a good painter. He said, "Cezanne's apples on the table have always done that for me. She earned it. Pending. It's loneliness. 'S true so I was strong then all the way down, like we had talked about.. Of humor the pastels, and rooted in the Salt Lake Temple, now almost 48 years ago mean... About a year after that, that experience also helped her better understand the Atonement. Down, like we had talked about it yeahIthat 's got tothat 's true thought a painting. And profoundly appreciative of that she, I was the youngest a physical presence stayed throughout... Are pretty simple, and junk pieces just takes a while to clean some of larger... Used to exemplify that intent to its maximum effectiveness Kathy WILLIAMS she workyou said she 'd give anything. 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