Collaboration between NIAD (National Institute of Art and Disabilities) artist Willie Harris and Sofie Siegmann during the month of August 2006.
I was asked to collaborate with an artist at NIAD (National Institute for Art and Disabilities). Following the collaboration, there would be an exhibit of the NIAD artist's work, my own, and that of our collaboration.
As soon as I saw Willie Harris' work, I knew I wanted to work with him. For over twenty years he has been coming to NIAD daily, painting six hours a day in a beautiful, light studio, which he shares with many other NIAD artists. His work has changed somewhat, but mainly consists of circles, a person (maybe himself) and a house with a chimney. He likes colors and paints sometimes on big canvasses and doors, whatever his teachers put in front of him.
Not much is known of Willie. He is mute and wears a helmet. He lives in a home. He is maybe forty-something. He will not stop painting until you take the paint brush out of his hands, or change the paint. He works slowly, but steadily.
I enjoyed working with Willie tremendously. He is very friendly, and let me paint with him, next to him, and sometimes over what he had just painted himself. He would enjoy it if I handed him some fresh paint. When I stayed next to him, he would make sounds and "talk" to me. He very much liked it when I gave him a cup of tea or coffee, which he gobbled down, holding onto the cup with both hands.
I was impressed with the choices he made on the canvas, how he moved the paint around, the many layers he would paint, but mostly how he never stopped, never judged, never rested. He is a true artist.
Bubba, a fellow artist of Willie's at NIAD, selected the titles for the paintings. "Don't know about that one," he would say, and then "...call it Jamaica."
Niad Art Center
Click the painting to see its full size.
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