Dennis Paul Williams has been drawing since he could hold a crayon. Highly sensitive to beauty, fueled by his spirituality, and drawing from the Creole heritage of his St. Martinville family, Williams’ soulful works swirl with vibrant energy around a calm meditative center. Williams, who plays with his brother Nathan Williams’s band, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas, is a prolific artist, filling his studio with stacks of work on paper. Images of his grandmother, a healer, his daughters, his wife, father, uncle, brothers as well as the biblical prophets whirl through his work. Horses, birds, leaves — elements of nature in motion fly on the invisible wind.
In his most recent work, the rainbow pastels he is known for have given way to the limited pallet of a box of conté crayons: charcoal, graphite and burnt sienna. Inset into these subtle drawings are geometric figures and finely rendered images. The work is deeply moving both on an artistic as well as spiritual level. A survey of William’s work, Soul Texture, opens Saturday night, October 11, during ArtWalk at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. For more information, call the ACA at 233-7060.