Artist reception for ArtSpace Gallery exhibit – Amber Williams
September 25 @ 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm
The ArtSpace Gallery at the Quad-Cities Campus is exhibiting “Take Me to the Mountains,” collage by Amber Williams, from Monday, Aug. 19 through Friday, Sept. 27.
Everyone is invited to a reception and artist talk Wednesday, Sept. 25 from 4-5:15 p.m. with an artist talk at 4:15 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided.
The ArtSpace Gallery is located on the first floor of Building 4 at the Quad-Cities Campus, 6600 34th Ave., Moline.
For more information about exhibits in the ArtSpace Gallery, email ArtDesign@bhc.edu or visit Black Hawk College Art and Design.
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Amber Williams grew up in the small town of Colona, IL. Collage was an early and preferred form of artistic expression, finding joy in gluing would-be trash together. Art as a career never crossed her mind as a tangible possibility, despite the responsive urge to fill any elective opportunity with a creative course of some sort. There was very little money to spare, but Amber was always studious and ambitious. With the assistance of a few scholarships, she was the first in her family to attend college.
In 2005, she graduated from Albion College (Albion, MI), with a B.A. in anthropology (summa cum laude). From there, she began her career as a case manager, serving adults with disabilities. She rediscovered her passion for collage by chance in 2010, after bringing home a stack of National Geographic magazines from a Friends of the Library sale. This happened during a period of great anxiety, and she credits this rediscovery of collage as a lifesaving moment. Not long after that, she was introduced to the world of security envelope patterns, which also became an obsession. She keeps a sample of each unique envelope she finds, now totaling over 900 shades and patterns.
Her collage methods are self-taught and have evolved over time. She notes that her artwork is an unintentional wink at her previous anthropology studies, since so much of human history is documented by the trash created. Her first exhibit of collages “Mountains of Envelopes” was on display through Quad City Arts at the Moline International Airport in September-October 2014. Since then, Amber has a been accepted to various local, regional and national exhibits.
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“Take Me to the Mountains”
I spent all of my memorable life searching for a something that was found somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, during a magical week in May 2021.
A much-needed respite introduced me to the Rocky Mountains, seen in person for the first time, during that very tender week of awe. There was a certainty in knowing that there was no need to search again. All was found, and love for life was felt in every beating cell.
The resulting series of 12” x 12” collages were intentionally left just as tender, leaving hints of all processes exposed: bare gesso, pencil sketches, layers of ink transfer, and then finally layers of traditional collage methods. I wanted to imitate that feeling of a precious photograph kept in a drawer, slightly blemished over time, after years of revisiting the good times again and again. I have always been prematurely nostalgic.
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