Creating Convergent Art through Self-discovery

I had the pleasure to meet artist Nancy Coleman a few years ago while I was visiting Seattle. Her presence struck me immediately – peaceful, light, deep and curious. She’s soft spoken and projects a laid-back Californian vibe. Nancy’s driven by compassion, love, kindness and humility. And her art speaks volumes.

Nancy is a master of self-reinvention. She’s currently a working and exhibiting artist living in Seattle. She relocated from the San Francisco Bay area about seven years ago with her husband, Darrel, and hasn’t looked back. While she’s lived many lives, Nancy’s art reflects her own journey inspired by natural beauty and picturesque water views of the northwest coast.

The Beginning

After a short-lived career as a paralegal for a Big Eight accounting firm in Manhattan, Nancy moved back to California where she took a job selling commercial litho printing services. She was inspired by her mother who was working in the printing industry at the time. Nancy fell in love with offset printing and saw this traditional production as a gateway into the design world before computers took over. Fueled by curiosity, Nancy learned how to run a design firm by simply being immersed in it and thus began to develop her own strategies for clients and learned to sell.

Never afraid of a new challenge, Nancy bought the small design firm, reorganized it and built it into a thriving marketing, branding and strategy company complete with 28 employees and sound reputation. This also included bringing in new technology at the onset of the computer age. In total, she spent 21 years working in the design and marketing industry before having the courage to give it all up to pursue her dream of being a working artist. These professional experiences shaped Nancy’s perspective on our culture and our economy of which you’ll see reflected in her creations. A lot of her work is influenced heavily by graphic design and by artists such as Mark Tobey, Basquiat, and Richard Avedon.

While she found the transition from design to art to be natural and comfortable it wasn’t without mixed emotions. Some of Nancy’s earliest and happiest memories come from making art. In fact, she always felt deep down that she was an artist in one way or another as so much of her life was centered on it.  Even during the years when she was focused on law and business her family kept asking when she was going to do her art. She never took them seriously and repeatedly brushed off their encouragement. While she regrets that deeply, it made her realize years later, sometimes our families do know us better than we know ourselves.

Reality and Reinvention

Frustrated by the two recessions in the 2000s and the impact it had on her agency, Nancy started making her own art and began to enjoy the process of making things again. Seeing her frustration, her husband asked her – Why don’t you leave consulting and focus on making art?  She recalls having an out-of-body experience, being on the edge of a high precipice. And as she was about to fly off the cliff, she had a moment of clarity and gave herself permission to change her life.

Nancy is an Empath and very rarely takes things in stride. She is deeply affected by others, her own experiences, change, her surroundings and current events. All these things tug at her heart and leave a lasting impression on her mind. Her transition to full-time artist was not an easy one. In fact, Nancy had a huge identity crisis. She had spent 21 years building her business and so much of it was wrapped around her identity. Nancy was neck-deep in the B2B community in San Francisco and leaving it was extraordinarily difficult for her.

Yet, she learned to cope with the change by spending a lot of time walking, biking, and seeking out nature in addition to making art. The much-needed break gave her time to process, think and reflect. She used her art and poetry writing to give herself a safe place to release her feelings, reshape her thoughts and self-understanding. It wasn’t until the mid-2000’s when she really started making client art pieces and had the courage to show and sell seriously.

Passion comes Alive

One remarkable aspect about Nancy is that she never formally studied art or design. Yet, you would never know it when looking at her work. She relates deeply to the School of Visionary Artists and ingests art like it’s another food group through books, going to galleries, museums, taking workshops and online classes. I think because she hasn’t studied formally this allows her to push the boundaries and experiment across different types of techniques without being married to a specific one. She takes risks and challenges herself across mediums to create the ideal piece. She’s of the philosophy that practice creates resolution. Self-reinvention is not easy, and Nancy sought refuge and inspiration in the words of legendary psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihaly and his philosophy of capturing moments that make life worth living. This is evidenced by her treasured very worn dogeared copy of his book, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.

I found it interesting that as we were talking about art, Nancy has unique view in seeing other artists’ work and often asks herself – Is this art? Her viewpoints are layered, and she explained that sometimes she doesn’t understand or feel compelled from certain types of art. With these feelings, she has found herself pondering – What makes good art?  To her, the definition of good art is anything that makes her want to go home and make art. It’s that simple. Great art awakens her soul. Nancy’s inspired visually through patterns, random objects and text lines coupled with events that have transpired in her life. She’s raw, vulnerable and authentic.

Inspiration and Layered Emotions

Prior to Nancy’s mother’s death in 2015, she had the opportunity to spend an extended period caring for her in Portland, Oregon. Overcome by anguish, Nancy used her grief and her love for poetry to create four new acrylic paintings using her newly invented text weaving technique. She originally experimented with this technique while painting a 24-foot outdoor mural in Georgetown, Seattle, titled The Colorful History of Georgetown.

She fell in love with the process and seeing the impact it made on passers-by, Nancy felt inspired to take it into her studio to try it on cradled birch panels. In the two paintings done during her early grieving, she chose a line from a poem by Rumi, her favorite poet: The wound is the place where the light enters you. These words and the love she put into the paintings helped her get through the grieving process and further develop her painted text weaving technique.

This eventually led to the latest project of a 24-foot long painting (comprised of 6 panels—a trick she learned at the American Visionary Art Museum) – layers upon layers of cursive text to create an abstract using the entire text of the U. S. Constitution. It’s titled “What the Constitution?!” The meaning behind it is very personal for her and it’s not what you’d expect.

Nancy’s deep feelings over current events, and the lack of civil – discourse have awakened her inner hippie, memories of college protests; and all the civil rights that she has continued to passionately advocate for since the 1970’s. Seems history does repeat itself.  While she, like many, is deeply affected by what’s happening in our country both culturally and politically, she’s encouraged by the advocacy of the younger generations feeling empowered to use their voice to continue the struggle for equality. Again, challenging convention through art, she’s eager to know what the public reaction will be to her Constitution piece as am I. I’ve had the opportunity to see glimpses of it in photographs and it’s powerful.

Inspiration and Inner Peace

One of my favorite parts of our conversation was understanding what drives her inspiration. Her answer was simple: Where I am now. She works hard to be present to each moment. While she’s not perfected it, it’s the continuous learning that she relishes most. She also loves being on her boat, anchoring out somewhere and truly enjoying the sense of peace in the early morning. The cool air, colors, humidity, bird life. All of it feels like home to her just like making art.

“Art is a process, not a product. Just like with life, art, and spiritual practice, if you focus on the process, it can all be enlightening.” – Nancy Coleman

Three simple joys of Nancy’s daily routine.

1. Family. She feels absolutely blessed to have so much family around.
2. Morning routine. She treasures being alone in the early quiet hours, which keeps her grounded.
3. Making things. Art, photography, flower arranging, and knitting gifts for people she loves.

If you live in or are planning to visit the Seattle area, Nancy Coleman’s art will be displayed at Gallery 110. Details below.

January 2 – February 2, 2019
Solo Show
Gallery 110

You can connect with Nancy on instagram and twitter.

*Photos courtesy of Nancy Coleman.*