Daily Inspiration: Meet Melissa Williams

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Williams.

Hi Melissa, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I tend to get a little intimidated when someone asks me to tell my story because I can’t offer a definitive answer to where or when I started – I don’t remember ever not being an artist. For me, being an artist hasn’t felt like a choice; it’s felt like uncovering parts of me, like a means of becoming more me – like a purification process. And I could tell you about how I grew up going to summer art classes, about my first photography assignment in eighth grade, about choosing a high school that had a photo dark room, or about how terrified I was to declare an art major in college. I think all of those things are interesting – but I think it’s much more relevant to talk about the backbone of these decisions: bravery. But a specific, quiet kind of bravery. And I say “quiet bravery” because there are so many ways to be brave in this world. Being quietly brave means pursuing what you want – what you truly want – even when you know you could have a satisfying life doing something less vulnerable. Being brave in the way I mean looks like taking brave actions when no one is looking, when the only person you’re being brave for is yourself. And this type of bravery doesn’t necessarily give you quick gratification or even ensure the results you imagine – but it does create a kind of resonance, integrity, and self respect that is unmatched. When you pursue something (like art) that deeply matters to you – that feels so resonant – that resonance naturally grows into other areas of your life. Having your own back, being committed to yourself – it’s infectious. It’s a kind of magnetic bravery that creates a lot of momentum.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think the biggest struggle is fear and when I forget my “why”. I like to look at myself as a character when I need a little perspective – and whenever I feel disconnected from my work, the character I’m playing has forgotten why she’s doing what she’s doing (and when I forget why I’m putting myself out there, fear kicks in). Having a “why” creates a foundation to stand on. It acts as a center point that all of my actions extend from – and I think this is so important because our minds love stories. We love a narrative, we love a plot. It gives us context for where we are, why we’re where we are, and how our current actions are delivering us to what we want. Without that context, it feels like I’m untethered to my source, floating around aimlessly (and I do not enjoy that feeling for an extended period of time – maybe for a cheeky little afternoon but then I’m back to the why). Clearly I’m the type of person who is very driven by purpose – I get a lot of motivation from the character I’m being and from the idea that I’m actively crafting my story. And right now, my why is morphing and finding new definitions – new heights, more space. When I’m in this kind of growth period, my why usually looks like a self-issued challenge; it becomes an exploration of how far I can go. If I were to put it succinctly, my current why is my attempt to answer the question: how beautiful can I make my life feel? And I see how that could sound silly, but I genuinely view my life as an art project that I have the privilege of tinkering with.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Talking about my art is tricky and slippery – it feels right in my head and then when I attempt to put it into words, it’s elusive (like trying to explain the dream I had last night). Right now I’m imagining how lovely it would be if my prints grew little mouths and spoke for themselves haha. I’m a fine art photographer who’s (currently) interested in the role intuition plays in the creative process. I’m exploring this through digital photography in a project titled Portals: Part One – Intuition. I take large colorful lights into nature and allow my intuition to make all the artistic decisions (time of day, choosing the location, how I frame my images, and the color and placements of the lights). The resulting landscape photos feel like portals to another world – they’re surreal, striking, and charged with possibility. And for me, this is a representation of what having access to my intuition feels like. It’s a means of making my internal reality part of the external – of furthering an inner, symbolic language where I’ve gained a connection to a part of myself that knows things my thinking mind cannot. Experiencing and interacting with this information feels like having cheat codes to reality – I like to explain it as “if reality is a video game, intuitive information is like uncovering a map to your video games’ rules”. And living in a world where I get to use this information – it has moments that feel magical and electrifying. And I have to add – I print these landscape images on a thick, silver metallic paper (for those who are interested, I use Hahnemühle’s Photo Rag Metallic and an Epson P900 printer). When the light catches them, they absolutely glow. And I love that their luminescence enhances the otherworldly feel – when you walk into a room, they remind me of the painting that comes to life in C.S. Lewis’s third Narnia book, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” (where the characters are transported to another reality after the painting comes to life and starts interacting with them).

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The art world dramatically changes over very short periods of time because it’s based on innovation and invention. And I think of the artist’s role in society as twofold: to bring attention to our past and present and to “set the image” for our future. I see more artists moving into what I think of as world building – imagining how we want our society to look and creating a world that suits us better. I think people underestimate the power art has to change society – but I see artists as connected to the divine.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.welissamilliams.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/welissamilliams/
• Other: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/welissamilliams

 

Image Credits
Genesis Sublette Melissa L. Williams