Nancy Steele-Makasci

Artist Statement

I was never meant to be an artist. At least, that is how it seemed. My youth was spent working in my father’s fields and sawmill in an isolated Appalachian community in southeastern Indiana. My unique hardships growing up poor in the dying agricultural landscape and culture of Appalachia profoundly shaped my artistic vision. My experiences, however, showed me that being an artist is not always afforded through affluence, opportunity, and privilege. Being an artist was written into my DNA.

As an artist, I have explored many different styles and media. Printmaking, book arts, collage, drawing, and painting are my preferred means of expression. Sketching initial ideas quickly and spontaneously has become an essential ritual in my working process. I believe that creative ideas are unique and powerful, sometimes even magical, often only appearing once. It is, therefore, the artist’s responsibility to capture these inspired phenomena while still vividly alive in the mind’s eye and commit them to paper. If not, these creative bursts, suddenly conceived within the artist’s mind, may disappear forever, never to return.

Bio

Nancy Steele-Makasci is an interdisciplinary visual artist and art educator. Working in a wide range of reproducible print media, painting, drawing and book arts, Nancy tackles contemporary social justice issues centered on gender/cultural inequalities, economic disparity and human rights. She has received awards from the Utah Arts Council and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) of Utah. Confident that art can impact social thought and change, she regularly exhibits her work locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Nancy is an Associate Professor of Art in the Department of Art & Design at Utah Valley University and has taught courses in painting, drawing, printmaking and art education.