Q. May I use Gilbert Williams'
images on my website? in role-playing formats? on stationery?
A. Complete information about
how to request use of images for your website is in the section called
Use of Gilbert Williams Work. Gilbert
Williams' work is fully copyrighted and all rights are reserved by the artist.
Permission must be obtained in writing for all use.
Q.
What if I'm already using images or information from Gilbert Williams' work on
my website or in any format and "forgot" to let you know?
A. Please immediately email us at
IsisRising@att.net so your use can be reviewed and so we can make an effort to
obtain the artist's permission for the use.
Q. What is Isis Rising?
A. Isis Rising, Inc. has long
been the foremost gallery of Visionary painting in the world and counts
among its distinguished artists Gilbert Williams, as well as accomplished
painters from around the world. Isis Rising and its sister company Illuminarium
[which merged in the 1990s] were founded in the early 1980s by Peny North,
Michaell North and Jach Pursel out of Peny North's concern for the welfare of the
artists in the newly-revitalized art form. Illuminarium and Isis Galleries had
their first locations in Marin County, California. Although Peny North declined
an invitation to open a gallery at Trump Tower in New York, she opened a
magnificent gallery at One Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, in 1986 and
another in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1988. With an extraordinary worldwide
clientele of collectors and an evolving online presence, Isis Rising closed its
physical spaces in the late 1990s to serve its clientele privately, through
online websites like this one, and shows a magnificent collection of crystals,
paintings, art-to-wear, and jewelry at Lazaris seminars in Orlando, FL and also in California.
Q.
How do I contact
Isis Rising?
Isis Rising
P.O. Box 37665, Raleigh, NC 27627
800-390-5097 Overseas: 407-876-2962
IsisRising@Lazaris.com
Q.
What is Visionary Art?
A. Visionary Art is a form of
Surrealism which contains two unique
paradigms of reality represented naturalistically, and it contains an uplifting
message or spiritual content. The way in which Visionary Art differs from
classical Surrealism is that classical Surrealism or social surrealism
often contains negative imagery. Visionary Art is unique in that it often brings
light into a dark perspective, speaking to people of hope, peace, greater
possibilities, and grander futures.
Q. What are the earliest origins of Visionary Art?
A. Though the genre of contemporary
Visionary Art comes out of surrealism,
Visionary Art itself encompasses any imagery that combines two or
more paradigms simultaneously -- and brings a positive message. The earliest
form may be the Thangka paintings of the Far East. Also, many of the works of
the European Masters -- though they also fall into other art categories of their
own time periods -- are Visionary paintings if they have converging paradigms
and messages of transcendence or of the highest ideals of humankind.
Q. What are examples of Visionary Art in more recent
times?
A. Bosch and Blake can be given much
of the credit for having initiated a new wave of
Visionary painting. However, the American Luminists (or Hudson River School of
artists), really brought new life to the art form. Sargent, Cole, Beirstadt, and
perhaps most notably Fredric Church combined the "real world of Earth and Nature"
with the more "surreal world" of Light in attempts to inspire a grander
appreciation of each and both. Most current Visionary painters credit the
Luminists with incredible advances both in technique and in imagination.
Q. What is happening with Visionary Art right now?
A. In very recent decades,
Visionary Art has undergone another very real
transformation in its imagery, and Gilbert Williams' work is the best and
primary example of the change: His canvases are full of the imagery not just of
converging worlds but of transcendence itself. Influenced by the Symbolists,
Williams employs archetypal imagery pointing toward brilliantly beautiful
possible realities. And this new, deeper imagining and symbolic imagery is
future-oriented. In this way, the Visionary painters become pioneers reaching
beyond the known world to bring back "pictures" of what the future frontiers
might hold. They take us beyond our concrete, tangible world into worlds of
imagination that lie beyond. They blur the boundaries between the two, allowing
us to see both at once. And perhaps best of all, they imply that we might have
the best of either world -- perhaps the best of both.
