Cat's Cradle

 This painting has been donated to Orcas Island
Artsmith, a nonprofit artist venue for writers and visual artist. It is acrylic on paper.

My Old Studio

I'm part of an artist collective, which I was juried into a year ago. This was my first studio during a gallery walk. It was an icy cold night and I was freezing in this little room. I had hot cider and nice cookies. The walls were so red I could hardly work in this room, but my art looked good on the walls.

Now I'm in a room twice the size. It had a potter in it before and there was an unbelievable amount of clay dust. Now it is yellow and the walls are covered with my work. I love it.

Emergence

This painting has a ground of hot pressed paper. The paper changes the surface of the paint because of its shininess, allowing it to stand on top of the paper, rather than soaking in. More texture occurs this way, and the colors remain sharp and vibrant. Abstraction means different things to different people. This painting looks like something is coming forward from inside.

Universe

This little painting has metalic paint as the background. The orange is a cadium based paint, which gives a nice saturation to the yellow hues. This remindes me of pictures of the solar system, how space seems to spiral. We're affected by what goes on out there beyond our solar system whether we know it or not. Ha, what does that have to do with painting? Well, everything has to do with everything. That's what is true.

Branches

This is a painting of branches, brush, twigs, in the woods. It's painted acrylic on paper. It's more realistic than my usual paintings of late. I like the red color, looks sort of mysterious.

Turning Knot

This painting was made into a book cover in 2005. My friend and poet, Kelli Russell Agodon chose this painting for her book cover, "Small Knots." To see the cover and read more about her, check out www.agodon.com/

Shine on Sound

This painting was part of a quick series of work I did where the images all came out with swirls and spirals and if you notice at the top of this piece, bird shapes. Frequently images in up in my paintings, sort of automatic paintings if you like, and then I enhance the images that are there. They usually tell me a story, like this piece might be about the swirl of emotion I feel and how my life can be overwhelming, yet always there is a spiritual presence I can rely on for comfort. To purchase go to www.nancycanyon.etsy.com