I've known Mickey Williams since my college days. His wife and my sister went to nursing school together and became fast friends. This was about the same time that Mickey's artwork was just beginning to really take off. He painted (and continues to paint) some of the most gorgeous landscapes of the Low Country and its haunting backdrops. When I was a lowly sophomore, I would babysit Riley, Sullivan, and Frances and be surrounded by these beautiful pieces. I still look at these paintings and get a pit in my stomach sometimes. You know that homesick feeling that makes you almost hear and smell what you're missing? For me it's the pluff mud, salt air, crickets, cicadas, and thick humidity.
Following is a bio on my pal Mickey and a few of his stunning paintings.
"Williams was born in 1961 in Anchorage, Alaska. At ten his family moved to the Isle of Palms, at a time when most of the island remained undeveloped and unspoiled. His interest in art dates from his childhood and although he won many awards in high school, he earned his college degree from the University of South Carolina in Government and International Studies. Six years after graduating from college, while working in the restaurant business, Williams started painting again and quickly realized that this would be his life's path.
Williams is a self-taught artist who learned his craft from studying art in books and museums. His work is inspired by the spiritual and romantic beauty of the lowcountry that he fell in love with as a child. Today Mickey lives with his wife and three children in Mt. Pleasant.
'I paint the air, the land and the water that surround me. I have always felt a deep emotional and spiritual bond with nature and feel blessed to live and work in an area that is so inspiring to the mind and soul. My landscape paintings are visual interpretations of what I see with my eyes and my heart. I attempt with every painting to draw a parallel connection between nature and personal experience.'
His current work focuses on not only the Ace Basin but surrounding barrier islands and wetlands as well. The Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto Rivers empty into a vast area of wetlands resulting in one of the world's most pristine estuaries.
Mickey is currently focusing on the coast and it's erosion and ever changing form.
His work is also included in permanent collections, including the Medical University of South Carolina, Roper Hospital, the University of South Carolina at Sumter, Cox Enterprises, Atlanta Georgia and The Department of Commerce Columbia SC in the Commerce Secretary's office and the office of the former United States Ambassador to Tanzania."
(I should mention the names of the paintings that I've included in the blog. Beginning from top to bottom: "Aftermath", "Memorial", "Dune Plamettos Hunting Island", "A Long Wet Road", "After Rain".)
xoxo
Anna
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