the niki download

A Quiet Constant Tremble

#82
Niki Williams
Palo Alto, CA
3/5/2025

Martin takes a moment, a bit sweaty from his trek up, up, up the big hill to the place he parks his car.

Nostalgia rises in his minds eye. A neural pathway is carved canyon deep, yet his body has not found a way to integrate the emotions– bitter, beautiful, bound to be. Wonder where she is now.

Despite being artificial, the desert is as dry as it ever was. These feelings are a threat, a constant quiet tremble, plate tectonics, slowly squishing and threatening the big one, the greatest of fractures.

Oh and lest I forget, a secret.

In the beginning, god made humans and gave them a forbidden apple to test them.

Adam used the apple as a makeshift bong and got high with his girlfriend Eve. While under the influence, they could not stop making sculptures, eating avocados and having sex.

God was, in equal measures, impressed with their creativity and very pissed off.

God barked, “If you don’t pick up the phone right now, you’re gonna be in super big trouble.”

No one living could understand what the message was, it was a language made of light and we mainly speak in darkness now.

A young philosopher noted that god spelled backwards is dog and so the beasts were cherished by all who heard the news.

All the best thinkers climbed an obelisk and inhaled deeply together until wrinkles formed on their foreheads and around their eyes.

By the time they came down, the place they parked their car had become engulfed in a sort story telling fire.

These stories were collected and transcribed into textiles and sold in stores before they were sewn into teddy bears.

Then, of course, there was a flood.

The Update

I have been in California eight months now with my partner Summer, while she completes her Masters at Stanford’s CCRMA program. I have had a run of good fortune. Consistent editorial work, a drawing commission and commercial shoots have allowed me to earn my keep. Still, I can’t shake the nerves, will they ever call again? How long will my savings last? What is coming next and when?

I work it all out by walking around and taking photos for my own benefit, to look deeply, and to gather piles for future printed projects. I find when I sit down to write this newsletter I am always reminded that a creative practice is slow, full of starts and stops, and when I am disciplined– steady messy marching. This newsletter has some images that will eventually become a black and white book called “A Constant Quiet Tremble”. I just ordered some test prints in order to see what the grainy black and white images will look like on paper. I would like to spend another year or two building the pile up, a project will let you know with a whisper when it is finished.

Next month Summer and I will begin the trek back to Michigan. I am looking forward to at least four cross country road trips with her (and Whiskey the German Shepard) in the next year and a half. While in Michigan, from July-September we will be recording field sounds and videos for a Knight Foundation funded installation and performance that will debut next year.

Until then, I am hoping to get at least six big mountain bike rides in…

Editorial Commissions

• Eater, Le Creu-pocalypse: Inside Le Creuset’s VIP Factory-to-Table Sale in San Jose

• SF Standard, Distraught families say Zuckerberg pulled funds from low-income school

• SF Standard, Stoners search for $30K in drug vouchers at wild Easter egg hunt

• SF Standard, Dancing with an Oppenheimer at a nuclear-powered rave

• SF Standard, Purple?! The Giants’ new jerseys elicit strong reactions

• SF Standard, ‘Go crazy and do two’: North Beach pop-up pumps out dirty sodas for free