Catherine Nash
United States
catherinenash.com
Catherine Nash - Artist Statement
The life of root and bud are at the heart of our being.
In my artwork, a personal language of symbols distilled from years of sketchbooks: shelters, nests, boats and bowls; light, water, earth, wind and sky; seeds, branches, roots and new growth; eyes and hands become timeless images that can be 'read' allegorically in many ways. I use these symbols to evoke emotive ideas without the need for the written or spoken word. I strive to interpret my deepest thoughts, dreamings and concerns with this visual poetry.
References to prolific roots and leaves stand as testimony to the resiliency of Nature to survive: a celebration of the power of Nature to heal itself and begin new growth. An intuitive relationship between the natural world and ourselves evokes the desire to create within me: the life of root and bud are at the heart of our being.
I have a deep love for paper. Paper is distilled nature. The words of Thich Nhat Hanh inspire me and put reason to my need to work with paper as a media. He eloquently and poetically shows us how a simple piece of paper contains not only the forces of nature and the hands that created it, but also ourselves within it, as the sheet of paper is part of our perception:
Catherine Nash - Bio
A long time resident of Tucson, Arizona, Catherine Nash is an artist who freely mixes media in her work to express her ideas. Specializing in Japanese and Western hand papermaking, encaustic painting and mixed media drawing, Nash is a teaching artist who balances her studio work with artist-in-resident teaching, lectures and workshops across the United States, as well as in professional studios and universities in eight European countries, Australia and Japan. She has published 4 educational DVDs on the art of papermaking and is currently co-writing a book that surveys international artists entitled 'Contemporary Paper and Encaustic'. Her work has been included by invitation into numerous national and international exhibitions, most recently in Japan, Bulgaria, Poland and Australia. Her love of travel and different cultures has inspired her to live, exhibit, research and teach on four continents. Nash has been a member of IAPMA since 1987.
After receiving a B.F.A. in Printmaking and Drawing from the University of New Hampshire in 1980, Nash spent a year and a half creating prints and drawings in Paris. In 1988, she graduated from the University of Arizona with a Masters of Fine Arts in Mixed Media. Two independently designed research trips to Japan enabled Nash to study the techniques of Japanese woodblock printing and papermaking in depth. From 1996-2002, her extensive research in Italy and Scandinavia increased her knowledge of historical and contemporary Western papermaking and paper arts. Nash has combined encaustic waxes and filtered earth pigments with her handmade paper works since 1994.
The landscape, aesthetics and cultures of Japan, the rich gradations and spaciousness of Scandinavian summer night skies, experiences with Native American friends and her explorations into the wilderness of the southwestern deserts have deeply influenced and informed her work.
The life of root and bud are at the heart of our being.
In my artwork, a personal language of symbols distilled from years of sketchbooks: shelters, nests, boats and bowls; light, water, earth, wind and sky; seeds, branches, roots and new growth; eyes and hands become timeless images that can be 'read' allegorically in many ways. I use these symbols to evoke emotive ideas without the need for the written or spoken word. I strive to interpret my deepest thoughts, dreamings and concerns with this visual poetry.
References to prolific roots and leaves stand as testimony to the resiliency of Nature to survive: a celebration of the power of Nature to heal itself and begin new growth. An intuitive relationship between the natural world and ourselves evokes the desire to create within me: the life of root and bud are at the heart of our being.
I have a deep love for paper. Paper is distilled nature. The words of Thich Nhat Hanh inspire me and put reason to my need to work with paper as a media. He eloquently and poetically shows us how a simple piece of paper contains not only the forces of nature and the hands that created it, but also ourselves within it, as the sheet of paper is part of our perception:
'When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper
cannot exist...So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper. You
cannot point out one thing that is not here...time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals
in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. As thin as this sheet of paper is,
it contains everything in the universe in it...'
-from 'The Heart of Understanding' by Thich Nhat Hanh
Catherine Nash - Bio
A long time resident of Tucson, Arizona, Catherine Nash is an artist who freely mixes media in her work to express her ideas. Specializing in Japanese and Western hand papermaking, encaustic painting and mixed media drawing, Nash is a teaching artist who balances her studio work with artist-in-resident teaching, lectures and workshops across the United States, as well as in professional studios and universities in eight European countries, Australia and Japan. She has published 4 educational DVDs on the art of papermaking and is currently co-writing a book that surveys international artists entitled 'Contemporary Paper and Encaustic'. Her work has been included by invitation into numerous national and international exhibitions, most recently in Japan, Bulgaria, Poland and Australia. Her love of travel and different cultures has inspired her to live, exhibit, research and teach on four continents. Nash has been a member of IAPMA since 1987.
After receiving a B.F.A. in Printmaking and Drawing from the University of New Hampshire in 1980, Nash spent a year and a half creating prints and drawings in Paris. In 1988, she graduated from the University of Arizona with a Masters of Fine Arts in Mixed Media. Two independently designed research trips to Japan enabled Nash to study the techniques of Japanese woodblock printing and papermaking in depth. From 1996-2002, her extensive research in Italy and Scandinavia increased her knowledge of historical and contemporary Western papermaking and paper arts. Nash has combined encaustic waxes and filtered earth pigments with her handmade paper works since 1994.
The landscape, aesthetics and cultures of Japan, the rich gradations and spaciousness of Scandinavian summer night skies, experiences with Native American friends and her explorations into the wilderness of the southwestern deserts have deeply influenced and informed her work.
www.catherinenash.com
www.papermakingresources.com
