1.)How do you celebrate the difference?

I make needle felted sculptures inspired by dreams, symbols and animals. I like to use “craft” materials in my work even though things like felt and beads and feathers are sort of looked down upon as hobby items. I guess it’s a little cheeky, but I think it’s worth taking a look at what separates “art” from “craft” and messing with those distinctions a little.

2.) What is a typical day in Zoë Williams’ life?

A typical day always includes some felting. Some days I go to work at my part time job (I do marketing/social media) or I work from home (I also do a little freelance graphic design), but no matter what else I do, I try to spend at least a few hours working at my art. The needle felting process is slow and tedious, so I find it necessary to multitask a little. Although there are some days when I will sit down and felt for 8 hours straight, that is definitely not the norm. I prefer TV to music while I work; it’s less distracting.

3.)What is the creative process you go through while creating a piece?

I frequently draw inspiration from my dreams, but I also tend to look at a lot of pictures of animals and sometimes I get inspiration from there. I’ll usually do a quick sketch before I begin, but I don’t spend a lot of time sketching; I prefer to just jump in and go from there. Because felting is so slow, I have a lot of freedom to let the piece evolve as I work.

4.) One of my favorite pieces you have done is “The Peacock and The Ram”..can you shed some light on what this piece is about and what it means to you..??

These two pieces were pretty much direct translations of dream images into sculpture. I’ve always dreamed regularly and vividly and I’m interested in analyzing those visions and giving them physical form through my artwork. For me, the red peacock is vanity and the white ram is obstinance. These are not traits I want to cultivate in my personality, but I think it is important to acknowledge them in some other way and the symbols themselves were very beautiful, so I did my best to capture that.

5.) Any future projects we should be looking out for?

I am participating in several shows over the next few months:

March 1st – 31st

Purgatorio, Paradiso

Artisans on Taylor Gallery

911 Water Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368

10am – 6pm daily

http://artisansontaylor.com/

April 6th – May 4th (opening reception April 6th, 7:00pm)

G40 Art Summit

various locations

Richmond, VA

http://artwhino.com/2012g40

May (opening reception May 11th, 2012)

Buddy’s Den 

TT Underground

91 Second Avenue, Lower Level, New York, NY 10003

http://theshowroomnyc.com/TT_Underground/Welcome.html

June (opening reception June 6th, 2012)

The Guild of the Black Eagle 5

Fuse Gallery

93 2nd Ave # A, New York, NY 10003

http://www.fusegallerynyc.com/

Special Thanks to Zoe! Make sure to Follow her on Twitter .