The road to becoming an artist is a winding one

Artist Domi Williams, who will be showing at ArtsQuest Mother's Day weekend, has lived a lot of places and worked a lot of jobs in her lifetime before settling in and embracing her present vocation.

Born in the north African nation of Algeria to descendants of French colonists, as a child Domi's family immigrated to the United States during the Algerian revolution.

Atlanta, Chicago, Mobile and Maine are a few of the locales she has lived in the U.S., as well as north and south Florida.

She worked jobs in those locations that included chicken farming, writing, mortgage processing, waitressing and being a Playboy bunny. She brushes off the last one with, "It's nothing but a glorified cocktail waitress."

Hugh Hefner never came in the Miami Beach location during the year she worked that job, but she said a lot of other celebrities did.

"It was the early ‘70s and fun and I made a lot of money. But you grow up and move on to other things," she said.

Since 1981, Domi has made her home in Panama City, a place she likens to Mayberry USA.

"But we wanted a quiet environment," she said.

Domi is married to musician Ed Williams, has two grown children and is now a grandmother.

In the early 1990s, Domi returned to her early love of artwork in the form of sculpture. However, she needed to make more money, and turned to painting as completion was achieved faster in that genre.

"It took six weeks to complete a piece of sculpture compared to three days to do a painting," she said.

The artist uses acrylics, Italian oils on canvas, pastels, and pen and ink in creating. She applies acrylics with a pallet knife, resulting in a surface that dries quickly.

Domi said what inspires her is a need to create.

"I become inspired when I start getting involved in a project. I like a blank canvas because it opens up so many possibilities," she said.

However, she admits she works out three or four small pencil sketches before beginning.

"Once I start with my first line of charcoal on the canvas then I become involved in the building up of the painting itself and I lose all sense of time and am inspired at that point," she said.

If her list of awards is any indication, the artist has found her calling. She just returned from the LeMoyne Chain of Parks Art Festival in Tallahassee where she won the Award of Excellence for oils and acrylics. In February she received a Merit Award from the Boca Raton Museum of Art Festival; second place at the 2007 Grand Art Show in Fairhope; 2007 Merit Prize at the Falling for Henry Art Festival, McDonough, Ga.; 2007 Award of Distinction at Fest for All in Baton Rouge; 2007 ESAC Jury Award at the outdoor art show in Fairhope; 2006 Award of Merit at Mainsail Art Festival in St. Petersburg; and has received three awards in past years at ArtsQuest.

"I was always an artist," she said. "It just took me a while to realize it."

See Domi's creations and meet the artist in Booth # 79 during ArtsQuest Fine Art Festival May 9 and 10 at The Village of Baytowne Wharf.