A COLLECTION OF ART BOOKS MADE FROM REUSE
Nancy "Nance" Cooley
In 2008 I became aware of the need to consider how much waste is generated in a studio practice. A fellow artist challenged us to produce works made solely from the materials found in our studios. We were not allowed to purchase anything (harder than it sounds!) Thsi seemingly simple challenge made me aware of how much viable art could be envisioned and produced using recycled, up cycled or repurposed materials from within my own environment. It became a more immediate and personal task than simply saving my cans. The results are often unusual pieces that contain bits of cryptic messages from projects past or old statements made from the printing on newly salvaged materials. I found that the easiest answer or first idea were rarely the best. Recycled materials demand respect and insure that you do not settle for unresolved solutions.
Making art from discards challenges not only all of us as artist, but also serves to remind us all, that we are the stewards of our planet. We, our intentions, our actions, as well as our results, are all interdependent.
My site-specific assemblage, ONE-TIE-WE ALL TIE, explores the nature of that interdependence.
Nance is a California transplant that trained as a painter and a printmaker before moving to Nashville with her husband, musician Bill Cooley. She has designed and produced wearable art pieces for country performers (some now in the collection of the Country Music Hall of Fame), spent years as a freelance illustrator for advertising agencies, printers and authors, has been the artist-in-residence or guest artist in several schools (locally MTSU), taught workshops and classes in various colligate, public and private schools and venues Locally-MTSU, Nashville Main Library, Country Music Hall of Fame), master printer in Tennessee Craft's master artist Apprenticeship program, has exhibited nationally in several mediums in over 40 juried and invitational shows.
Presently Nance is engaged as a multimedia artist building site-specific installations and assemblages. Exploring the possibilities of combining the art of bookmaking with the mechanics of automata. She produces text that exists and moves through space, challenging how books are read.
