Nancy Monson
Fiber & Mixed-Media Artist
Color. Color. Color!
I’m drawn to it, just as I’m drawn to the creative process. I especially love bright and happy colors, but also blacks and whites together. I have a special affection for dots. Who knows why?
To be fancy about it, my artwork explores the juxtaposition of color with patterns, lines, textures, symmetries, and asymmetries that mirror the random beauty of the world around us, using fabric, paper, thread, yarn, and paint.
As a colorist (I love saying that!), I’m intensely interested in the ways in which these elements evoke moods and feelings.
I also like experimenting with new platforms. I started out as a traditional quilter, making bed quilts and wall hangings. But lately I’ve been moving on from these traditional two-dimensional works to three-dimensional wall, suspended, and podium pieces. Recently, I’ve also started working on a small scale—under 15 inches and sometimes as small as 3 inches by 3 inches. The beauty of working on this scale is that it demands that I as a maker and you as the viewer take a closer look. Small draws us in…
I don’t like to plan my work too much. I start with an idea and then I just let it fly. I like problem-solving without having to adhere to a specific outcome. Once upon a time, I was a product-oriented artist, but now I find myself truly enjoying the process of creating and experimenting with different media as much as I do being able to see the fruits of my labor.
So what am I trying to do with my work? I want to feel good as I create it, and I want my viewer to experience positive, happy, and calming feelings. This is important to me as an author as well as an artist, because I’ve been interested in the therapeutic benefits of pursuing creative activities for a very long time. In fact, I wrote a book about it, and it’s called Craft to Heal: Soothing Your Soul with Sewing, Painting, and Other Pastimes.
“As a colorist, I’m drawn to all hues and shades, shadows and gradations…blues, greens, purples, pinks, yellows…blacks and whites. And dots!”
My Story
I’ve always been an artist—I just didn’t claim it. Until now.
Here’s a little of my journey…
,I’ve always been driven to make stuff because it makes me feel good and whole.
I’ve experimented with collage, drawing, painting, ceramics, felting, fiber art, and creative writing.
I’ve taken scores of art and graphic design classes from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth College of Visual and Performing Arts, Make It in Design (online), Silvermine School of Art in New Canaan, Connecticut, Parsons The New School of Design in New York City, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Paris American Academy in France.
And I did an artist’s residency at the Fletcher Farm School for the Arts and Crafts in Ludlow, Vermont in 2019 (that’s a photo of me to the right in the amazing studio they gave me to work in!).
My happiest moments in life are when I’m creating – and especially when I’m sharing the creative process with others.
My writing work over the past two decades has often focused on researching and writing about the therapeutic properties of the creative process, culminating in the publication of my book Craft to Heal which looks at the mental, physical, and spiritual benefits of pursuing a creative activity.
Education
I graduated from Boston University, with a BS in communications and a minor in psychology.
In 2012, I became a certified health coach.
In 2016, I completed my Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Fiber Art at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
In 2017, I became certified to teach the Zentangle drawing technique to others.
Teaching
Bridging my work as a writer, health coach, and artist, I lecture on the connection between creative activities and stress reduction, and I teach classes on the community level in fiber art, collage, acrylic dot painting, and Zentangle.
Exhibitions
I have shown my work in several juried and nonjuried exhibitions at The Fuller Craft Museum in Massachusetts, UMass Dartmouth, Silvermine School of Art, The Nest in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and the Vermont Quilt Festival, among others.
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TO CONTACT ME:
nancy.monson@att.net