William Thierfelder

My work falls into two categories: abstract reactions to specific events, both real and imagined; and explorations of the human form using digital photographs in combination with traditional drawing techniques. Few of my pieces are larger than 20 x 30 inches; many are smaller.

My authentic self as an artist is a poet at heart; I speak best in small, succinct, compressed forms.  I am creating for the eye that wants to examine a cross section or to examine a moment in time and space. The majority of my abstract work is a response to specific events, dreams, musical compositions, or emotional states using a deliberately chosen “alphabet” of shapes, colors, and designs. 
Geometric forms—especially circles, rectangles, and triangles— spermatozoic shapes, handwriting strokes, etching marks made with knives and pencils, smudges created with erasers, along with a bold color palette form my basic language.  In both my drawings of the human form and my abstractions, I use crayons, pencils, and pens because of their simple immediacy and because they form an autobiographical link straight back to my childhood.  Thus my art and the tools used to make that art are my fingerprint, my retina scan, my DNA signature.
Sep 2, 2008 Nov 28, 2008 Jan 15, 2009 Feb 23, 2009 Mar 10, 2009
STUDY 5 by William Thierfelder STUDY 13 by William Thierfelder STUDY 24 by William Thierfelder STUDY 24 by William Thierfelder STUDY 25 by William Thierfelder

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Curators Choice HM
May 15, 2009 Jun 11, 2009 Sep 1, 2009 Oct 27, 2009 See my current listings in the 'Art Log'
STUDY 10 by William Thierfelder STUDY 45 (Leaping) by William Thierfelder STUDY 10 by William Thierfelder STUDY 3 by William Thierfelder
Curators Choice HM

William Thierfelder is an artist, writer, and teacher who lives in Oakdale, Long Island, on the western campus of Dowling College where he is a Professor of English and Humanities.

  As an artist, Thierfelder has focused on drawing, using various media, especially crayon, pencil, and colored pens and markers, as well as digital photography.   His work has been shown at galleries on Long Island and since 2007 at Monkdogz Urban Art in Chelsea (Manhattan).  Inviting us to look more carefully at the world around us, his photographs generally depict close-ups of everyday things, from the interior of a flower or graffiti on a wall to a small pool of water in a sink.

As a writer, Thierfelder publishes under the name T. Richard Williams.  His poetry and short stories have been published in such diverse venues as Wild Violet, ShadeWorks, Aphelion, and American Poets and Poetry.  Two collections of verse—How the Dinosaurs Devoured the Humans and The Letter “S”—and a volume of short stories titled Ten are currently available.  He is currently the Fiction editor of ShadeWorks, a UK publication.

He has also been involved in various LGBT causes for many years, including volunteer and activist work for the Momentum AIDS Project (New York City), GMHC, LIAAC, Thursday’s Child of Long Island, and LIGALY.  He has started a scholarship for queer students—The Sakia Gunn-Matthew Shepard Scholarship—at Dowling College and created the Food Angel’s Initiative for LIAAC and Thursday’s Child, a program that provides supermarket gift cards for clients living with HIV/AIDS.
Contact: Information:
 www.thierfelderwilliams.com