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Nancy Vachani
I was born in Massachusetts in a suburb of Boston. I was not exposed to the visual arts outside of elementary school art. My family moved to a suburb of Chicago where my mom enrolled me in a local art teacher’s Saturday morning class. The teacher suggested enrolling in the Art Institute of Chicago summer classes. Those were wonderful classes not so much for the teaching, but the free admission to the Institute Museum of fine art. My friend and I would wander the corridors of the museum after enjoying our bag lunch seated next to the lions on the entry steps.
As a youth I always enjoyed drawing and painting exotic figures from stories or books I had read. There was an abundance of Bedouin tribal people and Africans. It was a good way to learn to do portraits from a variety of racial and ethnic groups.
I attended the University of California Berkeley where I majored in Asian Studies. During the college years, I met and married my husband who is from India. We traveled extensively together and lived one year in India. It was only after graduation that I realized how much I missed the arts. I engaged in visual arts once again with drawing, print making and painting while raising a family. For several years I did commissioned portraiture including pet portraits.
At present I am fully engaged in drawing and painting in my studio located in Orinda, CA.
MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST
Category: Mixed Media; Painter; Visual Artist
Artist Statement
Please provide a brief description of your creative process, motivations, and inspirations:
As a visual artist, I derive inspiration from the diverse array of human experiences, from the arduous struggles to the triumphant victories. My artistic narratives are woven from the rich fabric of life itself, drawing from a multitude of sources – be it the evocative realms of films and books, the transformative journeys of my travels, the intimate accounts of individuals ,impactful global news including scientific advancements.
My preferred painting medium is oils. Stylistically my work is defined as contemporary realism or narrative figurative. Although I am primarily self-taught, I’m passionate about my art and enjoy the precise methods needed to achieve convincing results. Focusing on details and the careful handling of the medium is an important part of my growth process as an artist.
Acceptance into the DeYoung Open exhibition of 2020 was an inspiration for me to continue exploring new themes and techniques with renewed confidence. I work simultaneously on various themes including our fragile existence and mortality. These themes are expressed either in a close up of one individual or a wider narrative based on contemporary themes such as feminism, religion, and today’s sociopolitical challenges as well as the intersection of technology. My hope is that the stories in the paintings will convey our common humanity. The paintings are about the universal message of compassion in a troubled world with the hope that the viewer is moved out of complacency.
