Nancy Willis
A major theme of my work is intimacy and social connection. This is mirrored in the hotel environment, which joins public and private space and heightened during StARTup, where viewers are invited into intimate spaces during a public event.
I often work in a series, investigating a trope or image from daily life to explore how color and light can inform meaning and instill the work with a sense of place. In both my painting and printmaking, I use an additive and subtractive process to create images that are painterly or evocative.
The bed is the centerpiece to hotel culture. Presenting work from the Bed series within this context give viewers a unique setting to experience the work. The hotel is also a place of community and isolation, where a chance encounter or planned event can shape ones’ life. On a personal level, the BED series takes on new meaning with the recent Napa fires. While my home and studio survived, I did evacuate and know 10 others who lost everything. The idea of displacement/security resonates below the surface of the form.
The R. S. V. P. series looks at the props, codes and atmosphere that set the stage for a memorable dining moment. Light is a key element in my work and most recently I have been combining images of chandeliers with glassware. I have expanded this exploration to the global arena by melding images of the destruction of domestic spaces in Aleppo, Mosul and Damascus with the chandelier.
For more information about the artist, please visit her website.