Today we’d like to introduce you to Nance Nadel.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Even as a child, I knew I would be an artist. My earliest memories are of projects constructed from cardboard egg cartons, newspaper, string and anything else I could find around the house that could be held together with a home-made paste of flour and water. These projects would absorb me for hours. I guess you could say that I was a mixed media collage artist in the making!
When it was time to choose a college, I chose Washington University for its art school. There I got a firm foundation in drawing, design and color theory. After graduation, I was awarded a teaching assistantship at Long Island University, and during my tenure I also earned an MA in fine arts. Later I earned an MFA from SUNY, Albany. The teaching experience, which I loved, paved the way for my 26 years as a professor of fine arts at the Sage Colleges in Albany, NY, during which time I was able to continue to make art and exhibit my work nationally.
Please tell us about your art.
Collage, the assemblage of disparate elements, is my way of painting. The physical experience of continually sorting through and selecting papers, cutting, tearing, sanding, drawing, painting and mounting the myriad materials to transform them into a convincing unified image, is what continually captivates me about this particular medium.
My multi-layered collage and mixed media work often reveal scenes within architecturally defined spaces;
interior and exterior walls, pillars, windows, doors or tiles, which create a structure or matrix for softer more amorphous forms or objects such as flowers, vines, circles and spheres.
This juxtaposition is accomplished through the utilization of various media that include handmade papers, wallpaper, printed matter, acrylic paint, pencil, watercolor and fragments of my original drawings and paintings. Acrylic medium is applied between each layer of material and the finished works are coated with an acrylic varnish which seals, protects and unifies the elements.
I have a curiosity and a need to examine the inner workings of things and their relationship in the larger setting. Often a window, door or passageway is used to create a space beyond the immediate or frontal setting, and to enhance the light and mood. Using the printer to enlarge or reduce the sizes of my images allows me to arrange the papers and images until special relationships begin to reveal themselves. Then the papers are shifted, replaced with other papers, shifted again and again until the ideas and images solidify.
Intricate patterns, camouflage and detail all serve a purpose in my work – to create a sense of intimacy, to draw the viewer in to a world suddenly revealed, and to feel the sense of the space, its light and its mood. This examining and layering, the meditative and physical process of creating my work, is as important as the final pieces themselves.
We often hear from artists that being an artist can be lonely. Any advice for those looking to connect with other artists?
Though many artists find solitude beneficial to the creative process, we also seek support and camaraderie from other artists. As a professor in a large college art department, I was fortunate to be part of a community of artists. Community was one of the perks of working in an academic environment, but more recently I have met many artists who have become friends, mentors and collaborators through workshops, classes and local art leagues.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My work is available for viewing, purchasing and exhibiting on my website, www.nancenadel.com. Currently I have works in a group exhibition at the Nathan D. Rosen Gallery in Boca Raton and in the Crest Theater at Old School Square in Delray Beach.
Contact Info:
- Address: Delray Beach, Florida
- Website: www.nancenadel.com
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Alexis Weinkoff, Marilyn Witkowski
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