Artist and designer Harvey McWilliams and a metal construction he designed, welded by his friend Kevin Daley, a sculptor
Harvey McWilliams can’t remember a time when he wasn’t doing something creative. As a child growing up in Aurora, North Carolina, he naturally gravitated to the arts. They didn’t include art in the school curriculum back then, but McWilliams was undaunted, and he taught himself how to do the things that interested him, including drawing, painting and even tap dancing.
He studied art at East Carolina University (then East Carolina College) and went on to serve in U.S. Army intelligence before arriving in Richmond in 1955 to study interior design at the Richmond Professional Institute of the College of William and Mary (RPI) on the G.I. Bill. In 1969, McWilliams became the first person to receive a Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University. In fact, VCU created the printmaking major for him.
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McWilliams designed the golden hand, mirror, console and staircase. The table is by Eero Saarinen, and the chair is by Eames.
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McWilliams designed the dining table and chairs, complemented by an Ettore Sottsass light fixture and a Davi Det Hompson concrete construction on the wall.
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McWilliams designed the quilt, side chair and prints over the bed.
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Paintings by Jon Bowie, a Marcel Breuer Wassily chair and a Paul Borzelleca console
Since then, McWilliams’ career has spanned numerous creative disciplines: art curator, printmaking instructor, interior designer, graphic designer, award-winning artist, stylist and retail entrepreneur — he opened Mainly Pasta, the first pasta shop in Richmond, at age 50. As an interior designer with the Miller & Rhoads commercial design department, McWilliams created the interiors for the first St. Mary’s Hospital. “I employed all of the creative artists in town,” he recalls.
“I had the potter at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts make the planters. I had the weaver at the museum weave the fabrics that went on the chairs. I had the sculptor and art critic Dick Gosset make the screen for the lobby, and I designed the fabric for the rooms, which was one of my woodcuts printed on the fabric.”
McWilliams, who turned 87 in August, purchased his circa-1888 Fan District home in the 1970s and has been transforming it ever since. A trapezoid-shaped dining room addition and all of its furnishings, as well as an open staircase, were among his first projects. “I designed the dining room furniture because I wanted everything to fit into the space,” he says.
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McWilliams-designed Hardale lamp, sofa and Harvey arm chairs and a Chuck Scalin fused glass construction in the living room
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McWilliams designed the kitchen, which was built by Daley.
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The McWilliams-designed Dowel Chest, handcrafted by Paul Borzelleca
In 2015, he began focusing on furniture design. “When I was diagnosed with terminal cancer six years ago and going to chemotherapy, I started designing stuff because I had to sit and couldn’t do anything,” he says. “The designs come to me when I’m sleeping. My whole theory is it’s all up there, all flying around, and you just pick up on it.” Six years later, he’s still undergoing treatment for cancer and still designing.
“The triangle fascinates me so much … because it’s the Trinity.” —Harvey McWilliams
McWilliams’ furniture designs are influenced by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and other midcentury designers, and they’re handcrafted from cherry or maple plywood. He has a thing for chairs, which he imbues with symbolism — circles and triangles, which can also be found in his artwork. “The triangle fascinates me so much because it’s also a religious symbol, because it’s the Trinity,” he explains. “And the symbolism of the circle, it’s a continuous thing, and it never stops.”
Prolific as ever, McWilliams’ most recent designs include a handmade quilt with a triangle and circle motif, a concrete birdbath, and a two-armed floor lamp, dubbed the “Hardale.” McWilliams’ 2014 “Harvey” armchair, which was featured in the VMFA museum shop until a recent remodel, is available for special order (contact McWilliams) along with other chairs and chests of his design.
