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3/10/2007

Texas connection

Artamo Gallery, Santa Barbara

Michelle Y. Williams and Ray Phillips

Both, Williams and Phillips, come from Houston and work in the abstract using acrylics and mixed media, occasionally integrating print and collage elements into their works. They have worked together on diverse projects before and even painted together. Though their two bodies of work are distinct in their own way it seems obvious that they are also influenced by each other ‹ an interesting combination of work and personalities.

MICHELLE Y WILLIAMS, after years as the director of a gallery, now concentrates on her own career as an artist. In her works she uses a variety of media, including oil, acrylics and raw materials such as sand. She works exclusively with the palette knife. Besides painting she also creates extraordinary pieces with metal and glass.

Michelle¹s work has evolved over the years and continues to undergo transformations. Unwittingly challenging the notion that consistency and logical progression are prerequisites for legitimization in a career, her signature alone remains her signature style. Her ultimate intention with her work is to evoke an emotional response. The inspiration for her work is both selective and indiscriminate. After the initial influence sparks the beginning of a painting, the piece generally takes on a vision of its own.

ray phillips has been an artist all his life. From the early years of endless drawing, his mother, recognizing his artistic passion, sacrificed, supported and encouraged him to take advantage of his talents and enrolled him in the Glassell School of Art (then called the Museum of Fine Art School). His later years found him experiencing much acclaimed success as a professional musician and more recently, in the digital graphics industry. But now painting, and the visual arts, became the last and true ideology for living his life.

It is all these artistic endeavors throughout his life that now translate into his work. His paintings exhibit the depth, layering, texture and composition that can only come from someone who strives for perfection, one who believes that enough is never enough. Phillips describes his passion: ³Each piece is like a series of small battles, something to overcome in the constant mission to please myself. The creative process is sometimes very exhausting ‹ unlike some people¹s interpretation that it¹s all therapeutic and ideas just fly onto the canvas. Often, after finishing a piece, I feel completely spent.

Opening reception: October 4, 2007, from 5 to 8 PM.

Artamo Gallery
11 West Anapamu Street - Santa Barbara

Hours: Wednesday­Sunday, 12:00­5:00 PM, Thursday until 8:00 PM
Free admission

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