Selina Farmer-Williams is a member of the Cherokee Nation. She grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and demonstrated an early talent for drawing and art. Encouraged to explore her talents, she attended the Institute of American Indian Art, Santa Fe, NM. Upon graduation, she was awarded an internship at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. In the summer of 2001, she took time off from her work in Washington to accept a full scholarship to Lacoste School of the Arts, Provence, France where she studied art and continued to show her work.
She works in oil, acrylic, pen and ink, printmaking and photography-as well as three-dimensional design. Her work has been published throughout the US and abroad. Selina's work is collected internationally and can be found in permanent collections such as that of IAIA museum in Santa Fe, NM. Her work has been described as a "haunting exploration of emotion" and "culturally stimulating".
Being blessed with having that of a diverse background - my mother being Cherokee/Irish and my father being Welsh -I have had the wonderful opportunity to learn from both cultures and to grow seeing the world on a much larger scale, seeing people as one - no categories, no division, just cultures that make us uniquely their own. That we are all blessed with our own special place on this earth, that we are each our own and yet all a part of this great wide world and universe. Blessed with the experience of coexistence. This has all become an integral part of the creative process for me. I work to explore my traditions, my culture, and the depths of human spirit and emotion through a contemporary format.
If one was to look back on our cultural past and see what we have gone through to survive, adapt, and succeed as a peoplewell, the mere fact that we still stand strong in our culture after everything that has been imposed upon us throughout time is a major accomplishment in history. Our power is in our knowledge of who we are as a people and what we have to offer to the world. To pass our language, traditions, stories essentially our culture on to the next generation for them to have and hold in their hearts and to live in their spirit. To instill in them the respect for these sacred treasures, and through them it will live on and therefore always be. I hope to contribute to this process through my work. Also to draw strength through the education of not only our own culture but through the knowledge and respect of other cultures as well. It is somewhere in the middle of all this that I wish to convey a sense of peace living in harmony with the acknowledgement of our past.
I want to reach people on a level of emotion, the one thing not tied or bound by culture, language, religion or race. its a much more pure form of communication. Emotion is one of the few things that connects us all together, the one thing we can all relate to. Wether we have an understanding of our emotions or we spend our whole lives trying to hide from them, we are all connected through them. I hope people will see this connection through my work and therefore learn something of themselves and the way they see the world.
I want to take the viewer to either a place they can relate to or to a place they have never been. I want the viewer to feel the content, and to know that like in many things there is more to it then what you first see. I want the viewer to be haunted by my work, to give them a moments encounter with that place, that connection with my work, to live somewhere within the depths of their memory.
Selina is currently working on many projects while enjoying being married and having had the amazing experience to raise her daughter, Mazzy Kaya, born March 25th, 2003-November 24th 2005. On Thanksgiving Day our two 1/2 year old little girl, Mazzy Kaya Williams died as a result of what was ruled to be a tragic accident. She was my world, and the light of my life. The pain of her loss is great.
I am determined to not let her death go without shedding some light into this world and make a difference in other children's lives. We have started up a memorial fund in her name, The Mazzy Kaya Foundation LLC. You can learn more by going to my website www.mazzyblue.com as well as soon her site will be up and running www.mazzykaya.com , so please stop by the site to learn more about my beautiful girl and the light she brought to this world.
Selina M. Farmer-Williams
