About John M. Williams
John's artwork currently revolves around creating portrait collages of great historical figures and events. Using hundreds of small pieces of paper cut from magazines, John pieces together a likeness of his subject, revealing not only the subject's character but also his historical significance.
As an artist with Asperger’s Syndrome, a type of autism, John uses his artwork as an outlet to help him express himself. Living with Asperger's is like having a television turned on in your head with the channel changer broken. Thoughts and images swirl around endlessly, making it difficult to stay calm and focused.
"The world is for me a chaotic place. Art helps me live with my disability by allowing me to channel my energy into creating new works. Creating collages is for me a metaphor for living with Asperger’s. I make order out of chaos by organizing many disparate elements into a unified and coherent image. It also allows me to marry art with my great passion for history.'
"Three characteristics of Asperger’s Syndrome are the inability to read emotions in others, discomfort in making eye contact, and superior visual learning skills. I find it easier to reflect emotions in my images than in real life. I try to show the emotion that I imagine the subject would be feeling. For example, my Lincoln portrait shows a worn and sad face. General Grant reveals a sense of grave determination. President Obama is the face of confidence and hope looking forward. In all of my portraits, the subjects’ eyes are the focus of the work, usually looking directly at the viewer – something that is hard for me to do in real life. I learn through pictures and convey my sense of the world through my visual art work. I would say that my art is a direct outgrowth of my disability. — John M. Williams
John's fine art collage pieces fall into three categories — civil war, portrait and landscapes. All of John's works are multi-faceted and display his unique perspective on history. He is particularly interested in depicting historical figures from the Civil War and his body of work includes portraits of President Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. Many of John's landscapes are also historical in nature such as Memorial and The Battle of Monitor and Merrimack. His portraits are primarily Civil War heroes, but also include prominent figures like Ted Williams and Barack Obama.
Featured in multiple galleries and exhibits throughout New England, John holds a BFA from the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. John currently lives in Winchester, Massachusetts.
John's work is available as originals with selected images available in limited-edition giclee prints. Commissions are available on request.