Joyce Williams finds art in the oddest places

When Joyce Williams spies an old wooden salad bowl in a thrift shop, the Virginia Beach artist doesn't see a discarded vessel.

Instead, she sees potential. For the past eight years, Williams has put her stamp - or colorfully painted squiggle - on a countless number of these old containers. She has also refashioned other wooden items - like serving platters and dowels - that were headed for the trash bin.

Williams, who refers to herself as a recycling artist, began her business back when green was just a color.

"I started going green before going green was in vogue," Williams said.

But recycling wasn't the foremost thought on Williams' mind when she began her business, Eclectic Works of Art. She began painting old pieces of wood because they were items that were readily available.

Williams' handiwork can be found at Green Alternatives in Norfolk, and she also participates in arts and craft shows around Hampton Roads throughout the year.

Her eclectic wall art and painted artistic poles are versatile. Welcome signs can be hung from the painted poles, Williams said, and left on covered porches or in entryways.

The bowls and platters Williams paints have mirrors glued to the back and can be hung on the wall. And all of her art is painted in brightly colored geometric patterns, complete with whimsical squiggles and dots throughout.

Sometimes at art shows where she is exhibiting, curious children stop by her booth amazed by her artwork. The brightly colored geometric patterns draw them in. They often ask how she paints such detailed patterns, she said, and she always tells them they could do it, too, because it's all just dots and squiggles.

But actually, her artwork involves much more than that. It takes about a week to build one of her artistic poles and paint it. First, she bleaches the wood, then sands it, primes it and paints it.

"Prep is the main thing," Williams said.

Because of all the bright colors Williams uses in her painting - oranges, yellows, blues, reds, and greens - people often ask if she learned to paint in Mexico.

"They like my colors," she said.

Amelia Scott, owner of Green Alternatives, began selling Williams' recycled art last month. Since then, she has heard similar observations from her customers.

"A lot of people do comment on them," Scott said. "They talk about how creative she is, taking other peoples' junk and making a piece of art."

As Williams drives around the area looking for new pieces to paint, she's looking for items she can sand down and do something with. She wants objects that have outlived their original purpose that she can now transform.

"I didn't paint it to be re-used," Williams said. "I painted it to be a piece of art."

Rita Frankenberry, 222-5102, rita.frankenberry@pilotonline.com