The family that makes art together …
Featuring Chuck Potter and Diane Williams
What’s it like living in a family of artists? Having mutual interests “is great, because it always brings new ideas to the table, and gives us a common language,” Diane Williams said in an email interview (extracted Keri Luiz article Benicia Herald).
“It gives us a common language, and also the many ideas and opinions keep the work fresh.”
Potter and Williams met at an art auction in 1995. “I have always made things, done carpentry and had a passion for gardening,” Potter said, “so you could appreciate the attraction to seeing a passionate artist like Diane in her studio, red hair, blue eyes, witty intellect and no fear of a chop saw — the rest is history.”
Potter, by day a controller and vice president for a property management firm, refers to his art as cathartic. Urban tribe is a collection of experiences and symbols that mark my trails of discovery. Painting provides me a vehicle to explore those experiences beyond what I can comprehend at the time. I often feel I can reach into the past and touch my ancestors or even others. Time seems to melt present, past, and future.
Diane Williams works at Kaiser as a surgery scheduler, and is a teacher and a painter who sees life, and life afterward, in her work. “Working at the hospital has had a profound influence on my work, inspiring me to focus on arts ability to facilitate the healing process,” she said.
“My connection to nature is absolute. Contemplating nature inspires my paintings just as the act of painting confirms my relationship to nature.”