Nedra Williams is a visual artist and designer from Oakland, CA. Her works have graced album and magazine covers and continue to reclaim spiritual nuance in the Everyday. She is an abstract- collagist, who has a passion for color, line, and form. Nedra uses a variety of varied papers, fabric, stencils, and photography as her collage tools. She favors acrylics because it lends itself to layering and color boldness. As each layer unfolds, the viewer is invited into a deeper dimension of a familiar sign that can suddenly change into a new interpretive twist.
Romare Bearden’s groundbreaking collage techniques and African- American themes appear in many of her Artworks, she is inspired by Basquiat, Driscoll, and Pikoli to dream. When she isn’t working in her studio, she spends time in her garden, reading, writing, and crocheting.
Living in a society where boxes and labels are a way of life, forces one to hide and resent the parts of themselves that are not accepted. Never being strictly one thing or another fostered the realization that “I am all things” “We are all things”.
“Telling stories that are unheard, or undervalued gives greater meaning to any work.” -RA
“My objective is to make the viewer connect and think outside themselves or what they know to be true. To see beyond the pretty picture on the wall” -RA
Artist Statement
The Art Diva project is an ongoing process of Nedra's reflections on Black women through the art of collage. These collages use the technique of Zentangle merged with African symbolism, Orisa mythology, and astrology to elicit the forms of the DIVAS. Each new Diva/Woman image will be a statement of our historical selves as we perform our "Everyday" magic upon the World and life. The citied works reflect the direction of the Project but are not limited to these images alone.
