“People just love some still life fruit baskets,” Meranda Williams says, petting one of her three rescued Persian cats. “Or abstract art. If I were to do still life fruit, it would be darker. People would feel weird about it. Those would definitely be some creepy fruits.”

Color saturated landscapes with sinister overtones are Williams’ trademark. The sinuous lines seem to move, rich colors and macabre subjects draw the eye further in, and the textures are so decadent that the urge to run a hand along them is irresistible. If that sounds like a description of a creamy dessert, you’re right on the mark.

“I like paint to be really thick, the colors to be contrasty, and I like to feel the paintings,” she says. “I love Prussian blue, cadmium red and black. It’s considered to muddy up a painting, but I like to have that dreariness with strong colors to highlight it…I don’t feel right with a wash, I don’t want to see any canvas. I want the paint thick and glopped on there.”

William’s maximalist tendencies play in all areas of her life. She puts in 40-plus hours a week managing the café at Books-A-Million, and spends her free time painting, cuddling with her cats or boyfriend, and in the studio with her friends in Augusta girlie rap group TBUC.

She doesn’t perform with TBUC onstage but contributes to their recordings. “You hear me rapping about cats and laughing, doing backup vocals. I’m always somewhere in there. I like to add more to it, there can always be more.”

Williams has worked with paint and pianos, film sets and tattoos -- whatever she could find to satisfy the urge. Until she finishes her degree to teach high school art, she likes to hone her mentoring skills on friends here in town.

“Because I got so much support from my art teachers and my parents, when I see someone with talents, I want them to do something with it,” she says. “I love Davey Diamond, who does traditional Japanese tattoo art, and Franklin Ward who’s done all of my tattoos. My friend Sarah Rodriguez raps for TBUC, and I’m a big supporter of her. Miles Kilpatrick’s stuff is great, he’s got a distinct style that’s very well developed.”

Her generous sense of community comes from the years she spent in New Orleans, where she grew up and sold her first paintings.

“The art community here is good, but it’s not as free feeling as it could be. It seems harder to get stuff going. In New Orleans, it was really celebrated -- people would show up to gallery shows with their families, art and music were more important in schools and well supported.”

Williams divides her painting time between commissioned works and gallery pieces. Right now she’s gathering steam for a show with TBUC’s Shenazty, who does mixed media designs. It’s slated to go off sometime in August at Ready To Wear, a boutique off Central Avenue.

“Shenazty is also kind of dark and quirky. Her paintings are a little different from mine, but in the same genre. She does put some interesting things together in her work, and so we’ve wanted to do a show together for a long time.”