Nancy's favorite artwork

Like a mindless virus we feed off our host with no regard to the potential of our self-inflicted demise. We began without malice as we endeavored to make our world better, safer, healthier, and less of a struggle. However, our short-sighted efforts and arrogance hypnotized us into believing we could fix anything with the next invention, the next great idea and we blindly fell in love with conveniences. Greed and shared ignorance became the norm.

We have buried the evidence of our damage, or sunk it deep into the oceans, out of sight and certainly not in our backyard. Gobbling up resources we move from one depleted location to the next not looking back. Our actions have made our food and water poisonous. Whistle blowers are ridiculed, ostracized, and silenced because we could not hear them and justifiably move forward. 

Our children pay the price for the privileges of those who came before them. They see and feel the truth and its effects. They watch their futures grow dimmer each passing day. Our children have solutions unbounded by limited perceptions, but we do not listen. Their futures are held in the hands of adults who repeatedly demonstrate childish, self-centered, partisan behavior. It could literally cost them everything - including their lives. Despair engulfs us. Fear divides us. Shame immobilizes us. The expansiveness of our impact overwhelms us. Seeing the truth requires courage. Change comes with inconvenient personal costs most seem unwilling to pay.

Mother Earth warns us time is running out. She requires us to be fearless and play our part if we expect her to continue to feed and nurture us as she has for millennia. We are called to awaken from complacency and over consumption. We are called to be brave for our children, for the finned, for the furred, for the feathered, for the four-legged, for the creatures that crawl and for the glorious foliage that covers our Mother Earth. 

We precariously teeter on the precipice of Planetary Threshold - the point of no return devastation. 

How are you heeding the call?

This mixed media piece was donated to climate scientist Robert Davies at the University of Utah to be used for climate change education.

Created in 2021 - NFS

School is meant to be safe, but our children are dying. Children are meant to learn, grow and ease out of their innocence, but it is being violently ripped away. Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas became yet another event where parents from previous school shootings traveled to support parents through a devastation they knew too well. 

With this artwork I do not feel I did this issue, or the children affected justice. How could I? As I overlayed the names of the schools that experienced gun violence I started with Sandy Hook; it was the one I heard about the most. I was overwhelmed by the number of schools and the children represented. After I was done, I realized I had forgotten about Columbine, the tragedy that first grabbed great media attention. I fear I forgot Columbine because it was too much to hold so many tragedies in my mind and heart. I created another list of the missing schools and squeezed them onto the painting around the edge and on two sides. Sadly, Columbine was not the beginning of this madness either. The first record of school gun violence was in 1853 when a student came back to school and killed the schoolmaster.

Three hundred fifty-eight (358) K-12 schools are listed on this painting, but gun violence does not stop there. It has invaded our universities, churches, grocery stores, homes and every aspect of our society. Media focuses on the children that were killed. My heart goes out to them and fears and cries for the thousands of children that hid in, or ran away from, or saw the carnage in those schools. A piece of them died too. Every child in every school across this country feels fear as a result. This trauma has forever altered their view of the world and killed their innocence. The unrelenting loss of innocence is more than any people or culture can bear. Yet the fight over guns drags on, and on, and on.

When will you/we/they choose love and our children first? 

Nancy is looking to donate this piece to an organization that is looking to make change regarding gun violence in schools. If you have suggestions, please contact Nancy 

Created in 2022 - NFS

I did not know whose portrait I would create when I started this piece, Obama or McCain. Months before the 2008 election I was moved to create pastel images depicting the current issues that would challenge the incoming president. From those original 14 images, 4,800 digital images were created and used for this portrait. My focus was - In honor of, and with deep gratitude for, a man who faces daunting responsibilities with unprecedented worldwide effects. This was not meant to be a Democratic or a Republican statement. It reflects back to a time when I was in school, and it was considered patriotic to have a picture of the president in each classroom. It was not a political statement then and it is not a partisan statement now.

Created in 2009-2010 -NFS

The 100th anniversary of suffrage inspired a dive deep into the evolution of women’s right to vote. Revealed was a timeline that spanned decades, many sacrifices made by many players who protested and strategized. This artwork is a tribute to those who came before us. It is a reminder we cannot take for granted the gains, losses and wins those women experienced for us all. Suffrage may be celebrating 100 years, but the struggle started prior to 1776. I dedicate this work to the women who played a role then, and those who work today, to end the disenfranchisement that still occurs. 

Things incorporated into the artwork: 

• Intentionally done with layers to represent the layers of commitment, work and 

         sacrifice 

• A Native American woman prominently voting represents the underrepresented 

        people for whom voting remains a challenge

• The Emancipation Ballot of 1848 echoes today’s issues and the work yet to be 

        done - especially for people of color

• 2020 begs a new amendment be brought forth regarding climate change

• A silhouette of a 1920 suffragette sister voting represents those who came before

• Posters portray the suffrage era logic

• Women march in the background, where they are often relegated

• Sacajawea is credited as being the first woman to vote due to her equal 

         vote on the Lewis and Clark expedition

• Unsung African American women rose to the challenge for suffrage 

• Susan B. Anthony, a leader dedicated to the cause died 14 years before the 

         Anthony amendment was ratified, she also held the belief that Blacks should 

        not have the vote

• Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman are credited with inspiring and 

        supporting suffrage because of how they worked to end slavery

• Helen Hill Weed, like many women, spent days or weeks jailed for protesting or 

         attempting to vote, husbands were not supportive, and marriages ended

• Force feeding was inflicted on women in the United States and Europe in 

         response to hunger strikes while incarcerated

• Red Lipstick used as a fashion protest became a tangible sign of autonomy

• Lancashire Lassie is being arrested, the women in Europe fought a parallel

          battle with inspiration traveling back and forth across the pond

• A timeline frames the piece, outlining the painstaking commitment experienced

          to attain women’s right to vote

• The Pussyhat protest is included because of the need for continued fighting for 

         equality

Suffrage 2020 was donated to the city of Park City, Utah and hangs in city hall.

Created in 2020 - NFS

I watched from the sidelines feeling helpless as nurses, doctors, medical staff, custodians and behind the scenes hospital staff walked into danger daily for their patients. That helplessness grew into an insatiable need to express my gratitude and admiration for the sacrifices in an uncertain environment that were made; sacrifices many of us will never truly understand. I needed this artwork to convey the message to the medical staff that there are many “out there” who appreciate them beyond words; a standing tribute to their valiant efforts during and beyond a global pandemic.

Concepts behind this work:

· The PPE shortages 

· The mystery - Who will it affect? How will it affect them? What is the best 

         treatment? How long will it take to develop a vaccine?

· Tears, grief, losses, helplessness, sacrifices

· The virus could be anywhere - so it escapes the painting out onto the mat

· Hat colors represent the various hospital departments with a white one

        to acknowledge essential staff behind the scenes

· Faces rendered in shades of the grey cloud that the globe became shrouded in

· The artwork demanded it be three dimensional to portray the many effects the 

         virus had on our health, our economy, our mental health, our families and our 

         perceptions of the world. 

Covid 19 Heroes hangs in the lobby of Intermountain Hospital in Park City, Utah.

Created in 2020 - NFS

Ma-ni-do Gee-zhi-Gance translates from Anishinaabe to Spirit Little Cedar and is a painting of a cedar tree known as the Witch Tree. This cedar is sacred to the Native peoples and stands on the northwest shore of Lake Superior near Grand Portage. For several years I traveled to spend time with the tree which was healing during a time of personal turmoil. I witnessed how tourists left trash and pulled pieces from the tree for souvenirs unaware of its sacredness. Then the tree was in jeopardy from developers and my response was to create this pastel painting in hopes it could be used to help generate funds to save the tree. That part of the story never came to fruition. Gratefully, this amazing tree is now under the protection of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe. Depicted in the painting are the four bands of Natives that lived on the land around the tree represented by Moose, Caribou, Pike and Pine Martin. 

Created in 1992 - NFS