Nancy Coleman

My work is about encouraging others to see things differently--whether through a lens, with paints, with wax, or assembling bits and pieces to re-create whatever shows up at my fingertips. I think my broad experimentation with a variety of subjects through a myriad of mediums is intrinsic to my always trying to figure out what life is all about: where is the center, what is of fundamental value, am I worthy, what is the meaning – if there is any meaning at all. I am grateful to be alive and grateful to be able to make art to express it.

Here’s more… https://adoseofzen.com/creating-convergent-art-through-self-discovery

Though making art has been an integral part of my life ever since I can remember, the decades I spent overseeing work for clients of my design firm (The Ideas Group in San Francisco) taught me a great deal about how people see and understand line and color, and how to finesse composition. Mostly, I learned about concepts and how one could express them visually.

Nowadays, I create fine art using a variety of mediums, including painting, encaustic, mixed media, and photography, often with digital editing. After completing a 24-foot brush-painted outdoor mural in Georgetown (Seattle), I became especially enthusiastic about the technique I developed for the mural using layers of cursive text to create almost-abstracts (I call it Painted Text Weaving), and have had several solo exhibits of these works at Gallery 110 Seattle, the Women’s Funding Alliance downtown Seattle, and Narthex Gallery in Magnolia.

Now part of the dynamic new gallery in Georgetown, Fogue Studios and Gallery, I was also part Gallery 110 from 2013 to 2019, thanks to an artist friend’s advice that “It will help you be a part of something bigger than yourself.” Indeed. Growing and developing is what art is all about, for me and to help others do the same. For four years as a volunteer, I facilitated monthly art workshops for the psychiatric and rehab units at Harborview Medical Center. In 2016, I organized a program of art workshops through Gallery 110 for homeless children and mothers at Mary's Place in Seattle. I also find a great deal of meaning in encouraging others to make art, enjoy art, and learn from art, whether they be friends, strangers, or family (including toddler grandchildren to my 94-year-old father-in-law). I just think art feeds the soul and lifts the spirit, and we all need this more than ever.

My work has been exhibited in numerous venues throughout Seattle, San Francisco Bay Area, Monterey, Los Angeles, and New York, and is a permanent part of the city collections of Seattle, Palo Alto and City of Seatac, as well as in private homes and offices in both hemispheres. I enjoyed my partnership in a fine art photography gallery in Half Moon Bay CA; served on the Palo Alto Public Art Commission, leaving as Chair in 2011; and was one of the founding photographers of a teaching studio in Silicon Valley.

It was late 2011 when I moved with my husband to Seattle, and honestly, it feels like here I have met my tribe.