Elizabeth Williams (artist)
{{Short description|American courtroom artist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Elizabeth Williams
| image = Elizabeth Williams at the Dominique Strauss-Khan court hearing.jpg
| caption =Courtroom artist Elizabeth Williams sketching Dominique Strauss-Kahn at his New York court hearing on July 1, 2011
| occupation = Illustrator
Author
| known_for = Courtroom artist
| alma_mater = Parsons The New School for Design
| education = Washington University in St. Louis
Parsons The New School for Design
Syracuse University
Otis Art Institute
}}
Elizabeth Williams is a New York City-based illustrator, courtroom artist and author.{{cite news |title=Capturing on Canvas the Downfall of Wall Street's Criminals |author=Alexandra Stevenson |work=The New York Times |date=April 14, 2014 |url=https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/04/14/capturing-on-canvas-the-downfall-of-wall-streets-criminals/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&emc=eta1&_r=2 |access-date=July 22, 2014}} She has covered many high-profile court cases such as those of John DeLorean, Martha Stewart, John Gotti, Michael Milken, Bernard Madoff, Dominique Strauss-Khan, Michael Cohen, and the Times Square Bomber.{{cite news |title=Reporting By Drawing |author=Daniel Fitzsimmons |publisher=New York Press |date=November 6, 2013 |url=http://nypress.com/reporting-by-drawing/ |access-date=July 22, 2014}}{{cite news |title=Live Blog: Sandusky Waives Right to Hearing |author=John W. Miller |publisher=Wall Street Journal |date=December 13, 2011 |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/12/13/live-blog-sandusky-hearing/ |access-date=July 22, 2014}}{{Cite web|url=https://hosted.ap.org/gallery/eb753c198a8f43c9adad6a9f3bdcc285/michael-cohen-pleads-guilty-lying-congress?id=i-14034482|title=In this courtroom sketch, Michael Cohen, center, reads a statement in federal court in New York, Thu...|website=Associated Press|language=en|access-date=2018-12-08|archive-date=2018-12-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209124422/https://hosted.ap.org/gallery/eb753c198a8f43c9adad6a9f3bdcc285/michael-cohen-pleads-guilty-lying-congress?id=i-14034482|url-status=dead}} Williams is the author with true crime writer Sue Russell of The Illustrated Courtroom: 50 Years of Court Art, a history of American courtroom sketch artistry published by CUNY Journalism Press in 2014.{{cite news |title=O.J., Martha, Jagger, and Manson: Capturing Celebrities in the Dock |author=Justin Jones |publisher=The Daily Beast |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/o-j-martha-jagger-and-manson-capturing-celebrities-in-the-dock.html |access-date=July 22, 2014}}{{cite news |title=Legal Artistry: Courthouse Drama Drawn in Real Time |author=Michael D. Goldhaber |publisher=American Lawyer |date=June 12, 2014 |url=http://www.americanlawyer.com/id=1202656369813/Legal-Artistry-Courthouse-Drama-Drawn-in-Real-Time |access-date=July 22, 2014}}
Career
File:Faisal Shahzad sentencing 001.jpg
Williams’ career began in Hollywood, California, where she was a fashion illustrator for designers such as Michael Travis and in the atelier of Bob Mackie.{{cite news |title=50 Years of Courtroom Drama on Display at Downtown Gallery |author=Irene Plagianos |publisher=DNAinfo New York |date=April 21, 2014 |url=http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140421/financial-district/50-years-of-courtroom-drama-on-display-at-downtown-gallery |access-date=July 28, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812124145/http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140421/financial-district/50-years-of-courtroom-drama-on-display-at-downtown-gallery |archive-date=August 12, 2014 }} Following the suggestion of a teacher she decided to pursue the possible career as a court artist. While working as a fashion illustrator she went to an art show in San Diego, California, where she saw the courtroom art of well-known sketch artist Bill Robles.{{cite news |title='The Illustrated Courtroom' Finds Art In Real-Life Legal Drama |author=Lynn Neary |publisher=National Public Radio |date=June 22, 2014 |url=https://www.npr.org/2014/06/22/324480015/finding-art-in-legal-drama-in-the-illustrated-courtroom |access-date=July 28, 2014}} After a meeting with Robles, she began to work as a courtroom artist. The first court case she covered was the San Bernardino, California hearing of a child molester in 1980.{{cite news |title=New York City artist captures courtroom history in new book |author=Chester Jesus Soria |publisher=Metro New York |date=April 29, 2014 |url=http://www.metro.us/newyork/news/local/2014/04/29/new-york-city-artist-courtroom-history/ |access-date=July 28, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729022111/http://www.metro.us/newyork/news/local/2014/04/29/new-york-city-artist-courtroom-history/ |archive-date=July 29, 2014 |url-status=dead }}
After Williams met Robles at a trial in Los Angeles, California, that they were both covering and he began to mentor her.{{cite news |title=Artist captures the sketchiest character of all: Bernie Madoff |author=Julie Shapiro |publisher=Downtown Express |date=July 3–9, 2009 |url=http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_323/artistcaptures.html |access-date=July 28, 2014}} The first high-profile trial she covered was the 1984 drug trafficking trial of John DeLorean for Los Angeles-based channel KABC-TV. Later that year Williams returned to her native New York and began working as a courtroom artist in New York City. While in New York City, Williams gained a reputation for reporting on white-collar crime. She covered the trials inside traders Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, Raj Rajaratnam, and Martha Stewart. Williams also reported on the trials of financial figures such as Bernard Madoff, Bernard Ebbers, and Dominique Strauss-Khan.{{cite news |title=Elizabeth Williams: The Eye of a Sketch Artist |author=Sarah Van Arsdale |publisher=New York Institute of Photography |url=http://elizabethwilliamstudio.com/LizArt/New-York-Institute-of-Photography.pdf |access-date=July 28, 2014}} Non-financial trials reported on by Williams include those of John Gotti, Times Square Bomber, terrorist Abu Anas al Libi, and Russian spy Anna Chapman.
In 2012, 61 of Williams’ sketches depicting the Sean Bell trial were acquired by the Lloyd Sealy Library at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.{{cite web |title=Classified Information the Lloyd Sealy Library Newsletter |date=Spring 2012 |url=http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/newsletter/spring2012/Spring2012.pdf |access-date=July 28, 2014 |archive-date=July 28, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140728234621/http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/newsletter/spring2012/Spring2012.pdf |url-status=dead }}
Along with crime writer Sue Russell, Williams authored The Illustrated Courtroom: 50 Years of Court Art, which was published in 2014 by CUNY Journalism Press. The book is a retrospective of American courtroom sketch art of high-profile trials produced from 1964 to 2014 and contains work from artists Howard Brodie, Aggie Kenny, Bill Robles, Richard Tomlinson, and Williams.
Education and style
Williams studied art at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, the Parsons The New School for Design, Syracuse University and the Otis Art Institute. Much of her artwork is created with brush pens, colored pencils, oil pastel and oil paint sticks.
References
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Category:American women artists
Category:Courtroom sketch artists
Category:American illustrators
Category:Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts alumni
Category:Parsons School of Design alumni
Category:Syracuse University alumni
Category:Otis College of Art and Design alumni