Interview
Tiffani Williams
Tiffani is a lifelong artist who loves diving into all kinds of creative adventures, whether it’s sculpting with clay, painting in different mediums, or experimenting with concrete and fabric. She is very grateful to her parents for encouraging her artistic pursuits, although the one medium they refused to let her use was soft pastel. Around the age of 12, Tiffani thought it would be a great idea to do a painting in soft pastel in her bedroom, which had a white carpet. After her mom discovered her creative mess, she never saw pastels again until she was an adult! In her professional life, Tiffani’s been in marketing for nearly 30 years. She has done a lot of graphic design and writing over the decades, which has given her a creative outlet. But nothing brings her as much joy and satisfaction as holding actual pigments in her hands, hearing and feeling them slide across the paper, and seeing her vision come to life.
What inspires you?
“Nature has always been my happy place and biggest muse. I’m often barefoot in the grass, soaking in that grounding connection to the earth; it’s where a lot of my creativity begins. My work often centers around animals, flowers, and landscapes that bring back memories of childhood and moments of calm. I try to capture those peaceful feelings in every piece.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“Right now, my theme is light. I'm always fascinated by how light interacts with everything in a scene. How it illuminates the tiny hairs on a stem, how color and value helps us differentiate between items, how atmosphere creates distance, how a backlit leaf glows with radiance - it's so delicate and fleeting and makes my soul happy. As an autistic artist, painting gives me a break from the literal way I usually process the world. I also experience chromesthesia, which means I ‘see’ sounds as colors, something that adds a personal and vibrant twist to how I use color. Through my art, I hope to create immersive, sensory experiences that let you feel the breeze, smell the flowers, and just be in the scene.”
How would you describe your work?
“Expressive, luminous, and grounded.”
Which artists influence you most?
“I've always been fascinated by Monet. The way he captures light with a few dots of paint is awe inspiring! His creative process has influenced my own focus on the interplay between light and color. Two contemporary pastel artists who have influenced my work are Anne Kindl and Mitch Albala. They both have a very unique style. Anne's color choices are so vibrant and alive, while Mitch's ability to use a nuanced monochromatic palette to tell a story is amazing. They both represent light and create exciting works in very different ways.”
“I'm always fascinated by how light interacts with everything in a scene.”
What is your creative process like?
“I start by visiting a place that inspires me and spending time walking around, grounding my bare feet into the earth, and really feeling the place. I take photos, but they don't capture the essence of the location or the extra bits I see because of my chromesthesia. Afterwards, I need to ruminate on my subject matter for awhile. If I don't, and just jump to painting from a photo, it may be a beautiful result, but it doesn't have the ‘extra’ that comes when I let it build over a few weeks. Over a period of a few weeks, my creative spirit will get excited about one of the photos, remembering how it felt and sounded in the moment. Only then can I sit down at my easel and start to paint. Sometimes I may loosely sketch the scene, especially if I'm combining multiple photos or adding things from my memory. I usually just paint without a sketch, letting it flow. I'll get my big shapes down first, following the general layout of the photo. But once they're in place, I paint from my heart. I rarely go back to the reference image. I'm also not an artist that usually does a lot of prework with value or color studies. I may do a color study if I'm trying to decide on an overall palette, but once I start painting, colors come to me on their own. Once my painting is ‘finished,’ I let it sit on the easel for a few days and don't look at it. When I come back to it with fresh eyes, I usually see a thing or two that I want to tweak. I also use this time to add a pop of color somewhere to create the sensation and vibration I felt when I saw the scene live.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“I think an artist’s role in society is to help people see the world a little differently. To capture what’s happening around us, but also to imagine what could be. Art has this unique way of expressing emotions and experiences that words can’t always reach. It connects people, starts conversations, and sometimes challenges how we think about things. From my perspective, art is really a reflection of the artist’s soul. It’s us pouring ourselves out onto paper or canvas or clay for the world to see — and to judge. Every piece we create carries a part of who we are. In a way, it’s like selling a bit of our essence, our dreams. There’s a real vulnerability in that, but we do it because creating and sharing feels essential. It’s how we communicate what we feel the awe, the joy, the sadness, and everything in between. At its best, art is empathy made visible. It’s a way to share emotion, to remind people they’re not alone in what they feel. And as artists, we get to play this small but meaningful role in helping others connect to themselves, to each other, and to the world around them.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“I had a solo show at the Antioch Art Center in July 2025. My work ‘Home Sweet Home’ was accepted into the Chicago Pastel Painters 2024 Strokin' exhibit. ‘Reaching’ was accepted into the Chicago Pastel Painters 2025 Strokin' exhibit "Basking" and ‘Reaching’ was also accepted into the Pastel Society of Alaska 2025 show.”
Website: www.tiffaniwilliamsfineart.com
Instagram: @tiffaniwilliamsfineart
