Visiting Artist Session II

Nicole Vanasse

March 24, 2025 @ 12:00 AM - May 4, 2025 @ 12:00 AM

Vanasse was born and raised in Northampton, Massachusetts. Her parents were ardent art collectors, very influenced by the New York abstract art community and also by the growing artist collective at the University of Massachusetts. Her father taught English at the local high school, and introduced studentsto humanities courses which mingled art, music and history as one. He was a big influence on her appreciation for our society and culture. My mother taught her how to sew. She was the one with the technical skills for everything in the house and the love of making things beautiful, but sewing was her biggest gift to Nicole. She attended and graduated from St. Michaels College in Winooski Vermont. Her father was a graduate and she had the opportunity to be in the first full class of women accepted in 1972. After college she was accepted to the Peace Corps in Benin, West Africa where she taught English as a second language. Her first job back home was as a writer for the Peace Corps in Washington, DC. Eventually she would parlay that opportunity into Director of Creative Services for the entire agency. In this capacity I was able to make films, design recruitment materials and even raise money for volunteer projects all over the world. She established herself as an artist in 1993 while still in Washington DC. Artist Statement: I have been making representational textile compositions since 1993. My first was a memorial portrait of my father who had returned from a trip to Ghana with gorgeous tie dye and batik fabrics. This was the moment I fell in love with creating pictures using fabric as my medium. My subjects are almost always figures from the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s. They are of all ages, often engaged in conversation, contemplation or casual poses. Early on I drew from my own family photographs for inspiration, but I love to explore other people’s past in their own collections. My technique is closest to collage, not quilting. I make a drawing on paper creating a pattern from which pieces are cut and then shaped on the canvas. Each piece of the puzzle, no matter how small or large, is ironed and hemmed for a smooth edge before being sewn into the composition. The composition goes: pattern first, hemming and basting next and finally machine stitched. No work is ever drawn upon or painted. Any nuance, facial structure or flourish is found within the fabric. Creating the mat and framing of course is more time.