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Award-willing collage artist John Williams says he’s mostly self-taught.
“I started making sculptures in Play-Doh when I was 4 years old,” he says.
His mother, Kathleen Piggott, describes them as “fanciful creatures — and yet, so real.”
When they lived in Bedford, Williams was in his school’s gifted art program (his family moved to Winchester when he was 14).
At the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Williams took a course in collage and when his mother saw his work in his portfolio, “It became the basis of my work.”
“It was hard to store and transport fragile sculptures,” says Williams, which is why he switched his medium to collage. “Art is safer when it’s in a frame.”
Williams uses bits of paper he cuts out of magazines and catalogs.
“I started doing pieces about the Civil War,” he says.
“None of his professors had seen his collages and when he had a senior exhibit, he displayed collages of dogs, Civil War generals and maps,” Piggott says. “Professors wondered whose work it was.”
These days, Williams is doing collages of floral arrangements, seascapes, sunsets. At the end of August and early September, Williams will have a 30-piece exhibit at Gallery 444 in Provincetown.
“It’s how I earn my living," he says.
Piggott adds, “John’s under no pressure — he does what he loves. We’re so proud of his work.”
Williams’s work (left to right): ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ and ‘Got Fish?’ WINCHESTER NEWS STAFF PHOTO/JOYCE WESTNER
Williams’s work will also be on display in the Winchester Public Library and during “Art in August.”
He received a citation from the Folk Art Society of America and was cited in a book about autistic artists.
Piggott points out that making eye contact is difficult for someone with autism, and Williams is a member of The Association for Autism and Neurodiversity.
“I worked with parents years ago to set up this group,” Piggott says. “Their members include more than 100 artists from all over the world.”
Williams welcomes anyone interested in his work to visit his studio. You can get details from him by email at johnmwilliamsfineart@gmail.com.
