Shaanti Williams

Williams is an illustrator, animator and K-6 visual arts teacher. He was born and raised in East Orange, NJ, and came to New England by way of the Rhode Island School of Design. He moved to Boston to work for a local silk screener and transitioned into teaching not long after. in his time away from teaching, he spends time with his family and his artwork. Shaanti finds inspiration and Shadow puppets of Indonesia called Wayang Kulit. Wayang in local Bahasa means “shadow” and refers to the entire gamut of shadow plays in Indonesia. Kulit, on the other hand, means leather. The puppets are called Wayang Kulit because the puppet figures are usually made of leather.

 

Whut Good? is made from layers of painted cardboard animated using stop -motion. ZOOM replaces the Light from the Fire. HellMouth - a prop used in medieval theatre to illustrate a connection between Earth and Hell. I'm using this prop to create illustrated narratives and animated morality tales.'Nuff Said - Comics have illustrated my point of view since a child. Whut Good? Hell Mouth/ BabyLand Towers : Dreams are the involuntary visual manifestations of one person’s emotional experiences. Whut Good? Babyland Towers document a cardboard stop motion animation Puppet's Dreams to be Human.. Science says that during the course of the average lifespan, a person will spend up to six hours of their life dreaming, working through highly individuated scenes and feelings in an attempt to order and make sense of them.

 

Good/ presents However, to understand a dream as American, is to understand a dream for a collective of people, spanning ages, genders, races, colors, orientations, ethnicities and creeds. The images can no longer be so highly personal, but instead must reflect what all Americans dream, and thereby ask, what do we all want for ourselves, for our collective? So, instead of thinking of the American dream as the image of what an individual wants for their future, Whut if we imagine it as the dream of a collective future. Whut if our futures are the visual manifestations of the hopes, dreams, life works of the generations that came before ours? Whut if the American dream is an ever-evolving pursuit of a more perfect union, a more comfortable common Good?