It’s been three years since Oshun Williams last saw his daughters Isabelle and Brayilynn.
The Pontiac-born artist’s Detroit studio is crowded with homages to them, an expression of his sadness and longing.
In a series of his paintings, they drink juice boxes while holding baskets of flowers, cling to their father as he carries them, and look at butterflies nestled in his arms. These are part of Williams’s solo show Window Pain at Detroit’s Norwest Gallery of Art, which opens on Saturday, Aug. 12.
The paintings are memories of times spent with his daughters, who he is estranged from due to a legal dispute with their mother. He says the mother of his children has full custody, and he feels the family court system is designed to put fathers at a disadvantage.
“I paint them a lot because I don’t see them as much and that’s kinda my way of dealing with what I’m going through,” he says. “I paint these stories of things that, if they was around now, I would teach them. So it’s kind of me trying to do my parenting even though they’re not here.”
His paintings are rich in color and typically bursting with flowers like a summer garden. Their positive energy juxtaposes the agony that fuels the artist’s work. Similarly, Williams’s calm and warm nature also masks his inner turmoil.
“Yeah, I’m upset about it, but I’m the type of person where it just is what it is,” he says. “People will look at my stuff and see all these bright colors even though a lot of the paintings are painful stuff I go through. But I feel like growing up, if I seen more positive or colorful stuff, then I would be OK.”
He adds, “You gotta show little Black kids that they’re special and that there’s nothing wrong with them. That’s why I do their hair like this too,” he says, pointing at a painting of a Black boy as a superhero and another with bantu knots.
Mittens are another common motif in his work, a nod to his former clothing brand “Mitten Made.” Williams is a self-taught painter and graphic designer, but he’s taken a hiatus from the Mitten Made brand to focus on painting for now. He’s only been painting for about four years and Window Pain is his second solo show this year.
He uses stencils, paper, and custom-made patches to give his work layers of texture. A floral patterned stencil adds depth to his daughter’s Minnie Mouse dress in one piece as she holds a bouquet of flower patches. In a painting called “The Blindside,” her eyes are covered with flowers, masking the struggles between her parents that she doesn’t see.
In another piece, Williams is carrying one of his daughters who has a cutout of a house on her back, representing “home being where the heart is.” But Williams’s heart lives with his children, in a home that he cannot reach.
In the painting, wears a crown of thorns like Jesus.
“If I was told Jesus was a Black male, I feel things would have been a lot better and I wouldn't have had so many questions about my faith,” he says. “I grew up in the church but there were always images of a white male… I didn’t see nothing powerful or positive that looked like me.”
Where to see his work: Window Pain is on view from Aug. 12-Sept. 3 at Norwest Gallery of Art; 19556 Grand River Ave., Detroit. An artist talk is scheduled from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19. He also has a piece in the Detroit Artists Market’s Hot DAM! show juried by Mario Moore until Sept. 2; 4719 Woodward Ave., Detroit.
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