CERAMIC MURALS & FUSED GLASS
1958 — 1968
For a time in the late 1950s, Willard worked as a commercial artist for a company creating ceramic wall pieces for restaurants and offices. When he and his second wife, Susannah, married in 1958, they moved into a large loft in the Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, 245 Grand Street, between Bowery and Chrystie St. This became his first large art studio. A former synagogue, built the late 1890s, the space had a 30-foot ceiling, a large skylight and ten beautiful, arched stained-glass windows.
Here he installed two industrial kilns and began a period of large-scale ceramic mural making, experimenting with firing a variety of materials. A 1963 brochure of his work states, "His unique Mural-Glass is adaptable to a wide variety of architectural environments. He has pioneered new techniques of fired glass on refractory tile, ceramic stone, stained glass and various metals." Through his agent, he was commissioned by architects and designers to create at least a dozen large mural projects for modern apartment towers, hotels, office buildings, a synagogue, and even a Broadway theater marquee. He also created smaller ceramic art pieces, some a single tile, and some with several interconnected tiles framed together. The subjects were primarily modernist abstracts, but one pair of large murals, still in the lobby of 25 Sutton Place, NY, depicts his striking compositions of vintage sailboats and tall ships.
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