Diz Willis

"He is a true original and one of the artistic touchstones of my life" - Snoo Wilson.There is not nearly enough about the late but legendary Diz Willis online, so I am putting a page up where images & sounds can be posted.I did not know Diz as well as many others, but he stayed at mine once or twice, I saw or was involved with many shows with him & I spent a couple of wonderful afternoons at his lovely place in Sowerby Bridge. These culminated in my buying a painting from him that cosmically connects myself, Diz & the sitter, our mutual friend Milovan Srdenovic of Smell & Quim. I could certainly call him a friend - we shared Gaulloises & gin. His longterm partner Sandy gifted me one of his suits when he sadly died in 1999 & in the pocket was one of the split matchsticks he always used to eat - that was very touching.Diz was a 'scenester' from fifties Soho onwards; a member of the well-known art troupe the Welfare State & the John Bull perfromance art group; on early bills with Genesis P. Orridge in Hull; at art college with Soft Cell & Fad Gadget; a collaborator with Adrian Henri; a performance poet & collaborator with Jeff Nuttall in The Australian Dancers & in Birdyak with Bob Cobbing, Hugh Metcalfe & Lol Coxhill; a player in Snoo Wilson theatrical pieces such as "Lay By" (written with Steven Poliakoff et al) at the Open Space Theatre & in Tony Bicat's film "Dinosaur"; a regular performer with noise jokers Smell & Quim, as The Colonel & (grudgingly, it seems), at one point a Regional Co-ordinator for the Arts Council. Solo, he came up with classic pieces like the Burton Richards tapes (as a very rough idea for the unitiated, maybe think of Viv Stanshall's Sir Henry stuff?).However, for me, his greatest talent was his paintings, which he showed me a lot of when I visited him in Sowerby. It was wonderful to have all the symbolisms explained, amongst burped exclamations of "Beef!", & I loved how everything was stored skewiff, but delicately touched up if he noticed a scratch or whatever. I took mine away in a toiletseat box - I've still got both things & they're both treasured! Since then, I've been given some reproductions of some more of his paintings & I have long been meaning to recontact Diz's daughter to ask the fate of the rest of the collection, as Diz was highly underrepresented for exhibitions during his lifetime & since, and talk of a CD ROM sadly never came to fruition. His use of colour was awesome & he had a fine grip on surrealism & symbolism, but always said the Beano was his biggest influence.Diz, you are fondly remembered.Phil Smith, Blackpool