Dr. Lisa M. Williamson Explores Time, Care, And Environmental Connection Through Art
Photo: Dr. Lisa M. Williamson’s art is a masterful fusion of intellect, empathy, and vision that reshapes our understanding of the world.
Blending Research, Empathy, And Art
Dr. Lisa M. Williamson merges scholarly research and artistic practice to address systemic racism, environmental fragility, and human connection, creating transformative works that challenge perceptions of time, space, and care.
Dr. Lisa M. Williamson is a visionary artist, scholar, and storyteller whose work transcends boundaries and challenges conventions. With an unparalleled ability to weave her deep intellectual pursuits into her artistic practice, Williamson merges disciplines to form a wholly unique and transformative creative process. From her groundbreaking research on Confederate aesthetics and the legacy of white supremacy in public art to her exploration of ephemeral moments shaped by light, shadow, and time, Williamson’s approach is both poetic and profoundly thought-provoking. Her work is not only an invitation to see the world differently but an urgent call to care—for our histories, our present, and the fragile environments on which our futures depend.
What makes Williamson’s journey so compelling is her ability to marry the rigor of academic inquiry with the emotive power of visual art. Whether she is crafting pigments from the Mississippi River’s metals, navigating the Arctic desert’s shifting light, or using the underwater world as her canvas, her art ignites a sense of wonder while tackling some of the world’s most pressing issues, such as environmental degradation, systemic racism, and the loss of cultural and natural monuments. Her work resonates deeply because it is as much about connection as it is about questioning—a chance not only to look but to truly see.
In this issue of WOWwART, we are honored to present an intimate conversation with Dr. Williamson, whose artistic practice embodies care, empathy, and a relentless curiosity about the human condition and the planet we inhabit. Her reflections on durational time, abstract art, and the interconnection of the natural world are a testament to her brilliance and an inspiration to anyone seeking to bridge disciplines, build awareness, and create meaningful change. Join us as we delve into the extraordinary mind and impactful work of Dr. Lisa M. Williamson, a force of creativity and conscience in contemporary art.
How has your exploration of Bergson’s concept of durational time influenced the way you approach creating abstract art or installations?
Henri Bergson says that time, as lived experience, is a qualitative progression where the past continues into the present. There are ways to measure time that don’t include a clock, such as counting how many steps we take or the number of breaths, and I’m interested in shifting shadows. When an object is sitting still time passes and brings with it a new experience of, and relationship to that object, shifting our understanding of how the object, and our relationship to that object, changes over time. When I collect shapes, I collect shadows rather than objects. When I create something immersive, I’m concerned with how I can change someone’s orientation to time, which is also someone’s orientation to space.
“When I create something immersive, I’m concerned with how I can change someone’s orientation to time and space.” –Lisa M. Williamson
Can you share more about your process of poeticizing scientific data, particularly during residencies like the Arctic Circle or Art + Bio in Puerto Rico?
The residency in Puerto Rico was an introduction to different research methods and fulfilled my desire to be a citizen scientist. I can read the statistics and timelines regarding coral bleaching, but if I snorkel around the reefs using a scuba board for anti-gravity drawings, I experience it for myself. The kind of slow looking required for drawing allows an opportunity to go beyond mathematical equations to a place of empathy. The real challenge is how to bring this awareness to the surface and move the audience to care when analytics, logic, and data become too abstract to comprehend. I’m trying it out with repetition, materials, and scale. I’m still practicing, and it’s the question I’ll continue to explore during the upcoming Arctic Circle residency.
What role does the concept of “care” play in your artistic practice, and how do you translate that into your visual and experiential pieces?
For me the idea of “care” is about time. If I care for, or about, someone or something, I’m giving them/it my time. Caring requires intimacy (or into-me-see, as explained to me by a friend), and moves past looking-to a place of seeing. I can’t say if I do this successfully with my art, but it’s how I approach my research and practice, and I find the more I care, the more it becomes evident in my work. If I’m doing it successfully, then maybe the audience can be moved to care when I’m addressing issues such as racism and global warming.
How has your research on white supremacy in public art informed your environmental and abstract work, particularly in creating monuments or installations?
Researching and writing about the perpetuation of racial violence in public art through U.S. Civil War sculptures made me realize two things: First, while my writing is political, my art wants to be less overt while still considering what the word “monument” means (something we fear losing). Second, monuments created by nature continue to be threatened depending on a new (or re-elected) president’s decree that opens the way for desecration leading to permanent loss. We should be afraid to lose glaciers, coral reefs, and rivers, and not be afraid to lose white supremacy. I consider the Mississippi River to be a monument, so I made paintings using hand-crafted ink from metal I pulled from the river during a record drought, which opened a conversation on the link between global warming, the financial loss to farmers who couldn’t move their crops down the river, and saltwater contaminating drinking water in Louisiana.
How do you see the relationship between the Arctic desert and the high desert of New Mexico shaping your upcoming work?
I’m looking for ways to intertextualize the data I’m gathering from both experiences. For example, considering how the temperature of one area affects the other, and inspecting the ways in which we experience these effects. I’m not interested in illustrating these changes but figuring out entry points into a conversation about global warming by creating pieces that provide a new perspective or deeper understanding, beginning with how desert time is different from city time.
This is where sundials and obelisks are becoming important to my work, because the desert offers unobstructed opportunities to track the movement of the sun. Sundials and obelisks are time indicators, and I’m creating several portable structures to take with me to see what happens with the movement of the sun and shadows and time. I think the reason why so many people in the U.S. dismiss global warming is because their sense of time is predicated on clock time, but clock time is linear and manmade, it’s not psychological and experiential. For example, telling someone that on X date the world’s ice will disappear is different than creating an experience of apricity, or the joy of feeling the warmth of the sun in the depths of winter, and explaining that this word could disappear in our lifetime. Then I have to wonder what other words and emotions will disappear over time.
Shes Leaving Here
Lisa’s work, “She’s Leaving Here,” is a captivating abstract composition that masterfully blends organic and geometric forms. Its vibrant color palette—featuring yellow, pink, green, and blue—infuses warmth and energy, while flowing shapes intertwine to create movement and depth. The textured background contrasts with the dynamic foreground, adding a layer of intrigue. Lisa’s careful interplay of sweeping lines and angular designs evokes a sense of transformation and vitality. This artwork invites viewers to embrace its vivid complexity, celebrating the harmony between structure and fluidity in an imaginative, expressive style.
