Moira Vincentelli interviewing Janet Williams
M.V. So, Janet, tell me your full name and when you were born.
J.W. Okay...full name, Janet Meyrick Williams (Welsh bit), and actually
now Dadey, but I use my maiden name.
M.V. You’ve always used your maiden name?
J.W. Yes, I’ve actually been married for the past four years. Born in
Newport, South Wales, went to school in Newport and Cardiff, moved to
London when I was about seventeen.
M.V. Around what time was that?
J.W. Early seventies. I worked in London for a few years before starting
art school. So I actually had a job and I guess that was partly... my
father was never too keen on me going through art school and so I wanted
to be self-sufficient. So I actually worked for three years and then was
able to get a full grant...
M.V. So had that been your long-term plan? You thought, “I’ll make
myself independent, so that I can do what I want to do”?
J.W. Yes, that’s true, and I didn’t necessarily decide I was going to
have a career in art. I’d always been interested and it was like my favourite
subject at school but, to be honest, I don’t think there were too many
role models around. I didn’t really know what was possible, and it wasn’t
until I was a bit older, and had met people who had actually been to art
school too, that I found out what was available.
M.V. What kind of background were you from? Middle class?
J.W. I would say middle class. My Dad was a lawyer and my mother was
a nurse, until the time we came along then she worked for the Red Cross.
M.V. So, you went to art school. What art school?
J.W. Okay, I went to, Middlesex Poly, Hornsey
Art School. I did a foundation. When I started, I had thought at one
time of actually doing ceramics right away and I sort of got steered towards
doing a foundation, and then I went into a fine art course. So I stayed
at Middlesex Poly did foundation there and then fine art.
M.V. Did you get a lot out of that?
J.W. Yes,in retrospect, although, at the time it was pretty much being
thrown in at the deep end. If you know anything about the fine art course
at Middlesex Poly, it was fairly unstructured, and quite experimental,
and quite a challenge in that. I don’t think I was quite at the stage
of development where I could actually really...
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