Artist Statement

The desire to embellish a surface, whether it is the carving of a facade on an ancient temple or the enhancement of skin with cosmetics, is a universal drive that has been documented through anthropological evidence and shown to have existed in every culture throughout every age. I respond to this idea by creating mixed media drawings and paintings using ornament as a tool to make suggestions about the nature of narrative structure. I layer appropriated shapes into a cluster of ornaments that by recombination are placed within a new conceptual framework.

I draw highly decorative arrangements of shapes to be embedded with unexpected motifs that are in reference to an enigmatic story continuously changing as it unfolds. For instance, the outline of a high-heeled boot or a pair of handcuffs alters the context of meaning in a surprising way when placed alongside a fragment of a 14th century Italian textile design. I seek to produce work that is beautiful and entertaining while functioning to slowly reveal a conceptual space for the contemplation of how a story might be structured without a beginning, middle or end. I hope to inspire the intellectual creativity of the viewer to bare new stories or meanings out of the psychological experience of seeing.

Nancy Brown
Summer 2006