BIOGRAPHY
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.
Artist Statement
I was never meant to be an artist. I was born to poor Appalachian farmers who didn’t even graduate from high school. I spent my youth working in my father’s fields and sawmill. My unique hardships growing up poor in the dying agricultural landscape and culture of Appalachia has profoundly shaped my vision of my own country and world. I have been able to tap into a deep vein of suffering produced by being chronically poor, isolated and disrespected. My work focuses on the struggles of women and other underrepresented groups.
It was highly unlikely that a child, especially a girl, born into this environment could ever find the resources and opportunities to study art. My experiences, however, showed me that being an artist is not always afforded through affluence, opportunity and privilege, even though those advantages may help tremendously. Being an artist was written into my DNA. I strived and fought for the ability to make my work throughout my entire life. It was like a weed that couldn’t be killed. No matter the circumstances that tried to strangle and starve my desire to make art, that desire always survived and grew anew. Like a shadow, it has followed me throughout my life, never leaving me, never forsaking me.
As an artist, I have explored many different styles and media. Printmaking, book arts, collage, drawing and painting are my preferred means of expression. My working process involves creating numerous sketches for each work, including numerous layers of drawings on tracing paper or vellum. 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.
This exhibition, "Zeitgeist", by Nancy Steele-Makasci was presented at the Woodbury Museum of Art at Utah Valley University from January to March 2020. The word "Zeitgeist" is German and means "spirit of the times".
There are Some Things to Tell You But, I Can't.... is an accordion fold artist’s book with multiple pages. Each page represents a female figure. The multiple female figures within the entire book characterize the thoughts and feelings of a single woman. On each figure appear words or sentences from the individual women that cannot be said out loud for fear of being punished or condemned. These are the words that each woman would like to say out loud, however, to maintain the stability of her environment, she is repeatedly self-silenced throughout her life.
Woman Silenced, Weeping Despair shows a female figure in black and white crying waves of tears shown through her hands that are placed on top of her swollen eyes. The leaves above her head and the leafy vines growing up her arms are symbols of growth and rebirth that represent hope in the face of despair and anguish. This is a relief print carved in linoleum and then printed on paper.
