What is the best thing that I love about my work? My ability to express myself in a variety of styles and mediums. I might do a semi-realistic fantasy oil painting today, a realistic graphite portrait tomorrow, a stylized steampunk watercolor next week, and a mixed media anime clown girl the week after that. I love being an artistic chameleon.
What is my idea of perfect happiness? I don’t need a lot to be happy, and the smallest everyday things can make me happy. Having just finished a piece of art, or a chapter of a manuscript. Horseback riding through the woods. Curling up with a cup of coffee, a good book, and my cats. Being in love, and being surrounded by family.
What is my greatest fear? Losing my loved ones.
What is the trait that I most deplore in myself? I’m shy, and I tend to get very self-conscious, especially when I’m around people I don’t know.
Which living persons in my profession do i most admire? There are too many to list them all. I have links to over 120 artists on my website, and I admire every single one of them.
What is my greatest extravagance? I love videogames. I’ve been a gamer since 1994, and own close to a thousand games across four different platforms.
On what occasion would I lie? I’m a brutally honest person. But if I absolutely had to, I would only lie if the truth would psychologically or literally destroy a person.
What is the thing that I dislike the most in my work? Ironically, it’s the same thing I love about it. I’d like to produce more uniform, less eclectic work.
When and where was I the happiest, in my work? Getting back to oil painting after a long hiatus (due to having kids). Finishing my first oil painting in years and realizing how much I missed the smell, the feel of oil paint.
If I could, what would I change about myself? I’d love to be more confident and less socially awkward.
What is my greatest achievement in work? The very fact that I’m able to make a living doing what I love. There was a point in my life when I thought it would never be possible.
Where would I most like to live? Realistically, I’d love to live in Manhattan, around Union Square area, which is where I used to live up until 2001. But deep down, my soul earns to be on a horse farm, surrounded by woods and mountains, in a place with warm summers and snowy winters, far away from civilization.
What is my most treasured possession? My wedding ring.
What is my most marked characteristic? Depends on who you ask. I hope it’s loyalty. But more likely it’s stubbornness. Or maybe it’s my love of solitude. Or maybe it’s my accent, which people tell me is very hard to place.
What is my most inspirational location, in my city? Central Park, Union Square Park, and the East Village.
What is my favorite place to eat and drink, in my city? My own house. I love to cook. Outside my house, John’s Of 12th Street.
What books influenced my life and how? When I was 12, Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” really resonated with me, and gave me a deeper understanding of American history and everyday life. About a year later, J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord Of The Rings” made me fall in love with the fantasy genre. As an adult, I could finally read George Orwell’s “1984” (which was banned in my home country), and it made me appreciate the freedom I now had even more.
Who are my favorite writers? Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Jeff Vandermeer, George Orwell, Dan Simmons, Octavia Butler. I also love YA, it’s my guilty pleasure.
You Only Die Once. What music would I listen to on my last day? The Beatles.
Who is my hero or heroine in fiction? Ellen Ripley from Alien. Olivia Dunham from Fringe. Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. Many more.
Who are my heroes and heroines in real life? My mom, and my husband, both of whom have always supported me in my artistic endeavors. Friends who’ve helped me, made me believe in myself. Military people, fire fighters, police officers, paramedics, animal rescuers, people who do the toughest and most thankless jobs. They are the real heroes.
Which movie would I recommend to see once in a lifetime? The original Star Wars, Goodfellas, The Matrix, The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
What role plays art in my life and work? Art is my life, my therapy, and my solace from all the negativity this world has to offer.
Who is my greatest fan, sponsor, partner in crime? My husband. All that, and more.
Whom would I like to work with in 2018? I’d like to work with more art galleries.
Which people in my profession would I love to meet in 2018? I would love to meet all the people I’ve connected with online and made friends with over the years.
What project, in 2018, am I looking forward to work on? I’d love to publish another art book this year.
Where can you see me or my work in 2018? Too early to say. My work will be at RadCon art show in Seattle, WA next month, and DragonCon in Atlanta, GA in August, and some other shows that haven’t yet been confirmed.
What do the words “Passion Never Retires” mean to me? A creative person can never choose to abandon their creativity. It’s out greatest gift as well as our greatest curse.
Which creative heroines should Peter invite to tell their story? The ladies from my art collective come to mind – especially Katerina Koukiotis and Mayumi Ogihara, whom I’ve known for many years.
How can you contact me?
Website: www.mariawilliam.net
E-mail: maria@mariawilliam.net
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjwilliamart
Facebook page: https://business.facebook.com/mjwilliamart
Here follows a message of Peter de Kuster, founder of The Heroine’s Journey
Spring Journey
Wednesday 14th March – Sunday 18th March
The best of The Heroine’s Journey condensed into a single, unforgettable week.
The Heroine’s Journey is a global organisation dedicated to teaching skills not covered by the regular education system – skills that develop storytelling intelligence and encourage psychological well-being for creative professionals. The Spring Journey brings together the very best in our storytelling.
We will cover such themes as how to make money doing what you love, how to promote your business, which is you, how to choose our partners more wisely, how to make relationships last, how to find and create your dreamjob by meeting your rolemodels and making testdrives, how to manage your time and organize yourself creativitely, how to focus on our creative goals, how to have the financial freedom to create and how to more regularly experience creative flow and happiness.
You’ll embark on a rich and enlightening voyage, discovering how to make lasting, meaningful change across every aspect of your creative life. By working within a fixed group led by Peter de Kuster over the week, you’ll dive deeper than would be possible in any single daytrip. You’ll be challenged to think deeply about the issues that matter most, and provided with a space to share your thoughts, ideas and experiences.
The Journey is ideal for those seeking a more meaningful, transformative vacation; for attendees of our daytrips who now wish to take a structured journey through our expertly curated material; and for those wishing to save time in the long run by working through the dilemmas of creative life, business, passion, and your own story in a single, high intensity week.
Blending tuition, exercises, meeting with stories of rolemodels, and discussion in journeys in a world city, each day of the Spring Journey will equip you with tools and strategies to help you find answers for your creative life’s big questions.
Join us for a truly transformational vacation for the mind in Rome
Ticket costs Euro 1250 excluding VAT per person, includes all teaching, materials, light refreshments & additional activities.
You can reach Peter for a skype meeting about questions you have by mailing him at peterdekuster@hotmail.nl
DAILY TIMETABLE
09.40 Tea & Coffee on arrival
10.00 Morning Session
13.00 Lunch Break
14.00 Afternoon Session
17.00 Drinks
Read on for a detailed breakdown of the Spring Journey itinerary.
“You are the Storyteller of Your Own Creative Life. You can Create Your Own Legend – Or Not” – Peter de Kuster
Spring Journey Itinerary
Day One: The first day of the Spring Journey is designed to equip us with the core skills of The Heroine’s Journey and Storytelling. We will learn the power of the story we tell ourselves, why our minds have a hard time understanding themselves, how to map and understand our passions, and how and why we characteristically respond to them.
Day Two: The second day of the Spring Journey takes us on a structured journey around the power of your story as creative professional. Creative flow is always in essence a mental phenomenon, it is a result of ideas- and a story you tell yourself therefore relies on having to hand a raft of enriching stories about your business, your money management, your self promotion and your time management that can be called upon in moments of truth. The day begins with a Heroine’s Journey Breakfast – considering what three of the greatest creative heroines of all time have as story about the art of creative living wisely and well.
Day Three: The third day of the Spring Journey teaches us how to choose our clients and business partners wisely and make our relationships last. One of the gravest errors we make around business relationships is to imagine that they aren’t things we can get wiser or better at. On this day we will learn to practise and rehearse our skills at working with the people who can help you further your creative business (clients and business partners like agents, publishers, marketing professionals etcera). In the evening, we will attend a Storytelling Dinner in a local restaurant – learning to overturn small talk and master the art of opening up our deepest stories.
Day Four: The fourth day of the Spring Journey teaches us how to achieve our creative career potential. We will employ storytelling tools to be better able to understand our creative talents and to move forward using the opportunities that are open to us.
Day Five: The final day of the Spring Journey explores new business opportunities and markets for you to as creative professional. Many of the challenges we encounter in modern life require us to develop creative solutions to complex problems. And even when we’re not tackling big problems, continuously improving the way we live using invention and imaginative strategy is deeply important.
You can reach Peter for a skype meeting about questions you have by mailing him at peterdekuster@hotmail.nl
The Heroine's Journey 