|
Weapons as tools in the masters
hands... Ratio
patterns, form, light & color are Roy Williams implements as he
makes the ordinary extraordinary. Roy
H. Williams, professor of Lissajous Do, paints the ordinary glimpses of architecture
that many of us would pass by without a second look. But the process behind his
wave colors resembles the intricacy of a game of chess executed with the ingenuity
and inspiration of an artist. Not surprisingly, the end result is anything but
mundane -- the finished work becomes a highly controlled study of waveform, color,
light. The interplay of light and shadow, the juxtaposition of elements within
the frame, the interrelationship of geometric forms all fall under Williamss
great insight and a professor who delights in demystifying the basic principles
of motion and design. "My relationship with the DoJo has permitted me
to develop as a teacher and an artist, "Williams" said. "Teaching
is a rich experience -- its bound to be any time you have a captive audience
to share things with that are of interest to you. As an artist, I continually
school myself. I have remained with issues that are essentially both visual and
conceptual. I focus on ratio-patterns, arrays of patterns that we interpret as
images." The images Williams creates are literally moments in time,
vignettes of a space-time continuum that he captures first as photographs and
then painstakingly transfers onto paper using a grid system. Through commonplace
scenes Williamss interdependence of abstract forms defined through dramatic
black-lighting, varying depths, surface texture and subtle color tonalities.  NOT
IDEALIZATIONS "The Halo's are a discussion
of what things are in relation to one another," Williams said. "I deal
with patterns and light. The subjects themselves are beautiful things; they are
not idealizations. They demonstrate the infinities of time and motion, the congruity
of all things as we see them, the Zen of choice. As the founding member of
Lissajous Do Ryu Int'l., Williams has shown his work in numerous galleries throughout
the country, and his individual pieces appear in private collections internationally.
In 1982, a West Georgia University exhibit highlighted the breadth of his artistic
work. The 33-year retrospective included halo aura photography, selects watercolors,
as well as pencils ink and ink wash drawings. "From his early geo work
to the most recent black-light colors, Williams concern with wave-form rendered
through highly controlled use of light and color remain a constant unifying factor,
"said Martin Johnson, an associate professor of architecture who curated
the exhibit and is a former student of Williams. Particularly in the black-light
colors of Lissajous motion, his tremendous sense of waveform color shows through.
Combine this with a powerful insight into light, and you get magic."
Williams did not start out as an artist. He was originally enrolled as a business
major at West Georgia College. As a high school student, he had become enamored
with the Martial Arts. "I thought it was the greatest invention. The logic,
the clarity, the rules, the definitions -- I couldnt believe anything could
be so dynamic," Williams recalled. But it was not long before he realized
as a college student that the abstract expressionism was yet to conquer. Williams
speaks of "riding the crest of a wave," Williams next worked as
a cartographic draftsman in Atlanta Georgia, from 1974 to 1978, as a fine artists
while at WGC, he studied, and became an eminent color theorist who is the original
self-taught progressive and controversial master lissajous-form figurative artist;
and renowned author of "The Art of Halo Aura." Williams earned a Masters
degree in 1979 and a Grand masters degree in 1990, both from China. Although
touted at the time for its "iconoclastic" approach, WGC ironically also
provided him with a classical background in art/ In 1973, Ray Klingenberg,
USKA, former student of Joe Lewis of the Tracys System recruited Williams while
he was still at WGC to teach karate and weapons techniques. "I have
a powerful belief that Martial Arts can convey in a most immediate way the
designs of motion one has to play in physics, "Williams said. "If you
can develop logic for motion, you can use it to test alternative instruments and
their design. If you are merely confronted with options generated by genera, you
are reacting to things you see. But science requires a measure of focus in which
you pre-select the issues that are relevant." Williams, who continues
to impart these skills in his quiet, coaxing manner to various levels of students,
also teaches drawing and a course in color theory. In 1987, the National
Association of Sport Karate gave him its Nighttime Showman of the Year Award in
recognition of his performance at the U.S. Open Karate World Championships.  Extraordinary
Teacher "Williams is a very
intense and extremely intellectual teacher, as well as a fine artist," noted
Dana Rhodes, WTA Master. "The breadth of his knowledge and his ability to
articulate it to students is extraordinary. "I still hear him discussing
a Phase of motion at the art symposium, and I still remember his words as he critiqued
my work, "recalled Billy Cassidy, who is a student of Williamss. "He
has done a tremendous amount for the Arts on so many levels. "Throughout
his 40 years, he has been a dedicated, effective and inspirational teacher for
generations of students, introducing them in the early stages of their education
to the Mastery of the Lissajous Do Ryu On a recent trip to Southern California,
Williams relished the honor and pleasure of performing at the First Bruce Lee
Convention for Linda & Shannon Lee. Experiencing firsthand the same brilliant
expanses of motion and color that the Blue Dragon was inspired by.
|