Artist Statement 2023

The sound and movement of scraping are quite satisfying as I arrange and layer papers to create my collages. I work with transparency — what to reveal and what to conceal; how the added shapes, colors, textures and marks respond to each other and create new shapes; how the diptychs have an active conversation. My work starts with making papers on new and found surfaces through painting, drawing and printmaking — I have a love affair with painting on the New York Times! The work is tactile and expressive, and I find myself focusing on the mood of the day as well as the state of the world. Lately it has been about order vs. disorder; alignment vs. misalignment and when to respect the boundaries and when to break them. Most recently I have been working on a much larger scale with a tilt toward painting and a focus on climate change. That said, there are periods when the goal is simply to delight both the artist and the viewer — to be restorative; to be a balm.

Curriculum Vitae

After spending her childhood on a farm in Ohio, Nancy was trained in design at the University of Cincinnati.   She worked for many years in architectural interior design on a wide range of built environments. While a principal at Sasaki Associates, the collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to teaming with architects, planners, landscape architects, graphic designers and artists was fundamental to the practice and yielded rich results.

Over the last several years in addition to her work for colleges and non-profits as Harrod Design Research, Nancy focused on environments for children and young adults on the autism spectrum and with other neurological and emotional differences. She was challenged to look at universal design in new ways and to think about how we all perceive the world so differently.