As a Visiting Artist at the Gibbes Museum of Art, Elizabeth Northcut Williams embarked on a series of portrait diptychs featuring specific individuals through history, painted as children. Inspired by her maternal grandfather’s lineage—tracing over 400 years of immigration from England and Western Europe to North America—Williams pairs portraits of her ancestors with individuals of African descent who share personal or familial connections.

Between You & Me invites viewers to reflect on the profound differences in American experiences shaped by the time and place of our birth.  In visualizing imagined friendships among the subjects of this series, Williams seeks to bring the grand scale of history to a personal, intimate level.  Each diptych is created with varied compositional styles that reflect the uniqueness of the era, often incorporating references to paintings from the corresponding time in history.

This exhibit showcases Williams’ progress to date: seven portrait diptychs (fourteen individuals), within the timeline of her 6th-great-grandmother in 1722 and continuing through each generation to her grandfather in 1923.  Alongside the portraits, two complementary series expand on the exploration of relationship and place. The first features abstract compositions crafted from wallpaper samples designed by Williams, with colors directly from the portraits. The second consists of seven window-framed landscapes, each representing a specific year within the series.

Williams aims to expand the project by further research on individuals who lived as far back as her known lineage which traces back to Pocahontas and John Rolfe in the early 1600s.