ABOUT THE ARTIST
Annie's remarkable artwork reflects the inner workings of a magnificent mind and innate talent. Her humor, unique view of life, and spiritual depth have allowed her to create phenomenal drawings and paintings which can be seen, pondered and interpreted by each viewer in their very own way.
There is little doubt that after viewing her work, pondering the subconscious, observing her consistent use of color and line shaping to create interpretive expressions, you will leave feeling inspired. We are delighted to have this deep and beautiful body of her work on the walls of our gallery.
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- The Gallery at The Edge Wilson
ARTIST STATEMENT
Storytelling is central to my work where images emerge through narrative portraits, abstracted figures, subconscious drawings, and family archives. The beauty of nature, humanity, memory, experience, mystery, and dreams inspire me.
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During the Pandemic, I have spent many hours in the studio experimenting and playing with materials and imagery. By June 2020, I found myself drawing every evening with gel pen and small sketchbook. I begin with no intention when drawing. I don’t know whether the subconscious mind is seeping up into the conscious mind or if the conscious mind is seeping down into the subconscious mind, either way I do not question it. The journey involves embracing the mystery of stories that unfold. I look and I respond, I feel and I respond, I wonder and I respond, I don’t know and I respond. I just let it all happen as it does.
Working in multi-media on paintings and drawings are my primary methods with materials. Layering color, drawing, and collage create a tapestry of expressive imagery. Acrylic paint, Oil Pastels, Collage, Graphite, Inks, Pastel Crayons, Charcoal, and Graphite Powder are materials I enjoy playing with. Hand printed and stained rice papers become part of the layering.
Through the beauty of art and the complexity of life, my current works explore the strength, courage, joy, dignity, challenge, love, trauma, humor, and compassion that we all share. The stories can connect us in ways we never expected and ways we come to feel as part of ourselves. The viewer brings their own experience to the work as we do in life when we meet each other. As the tale unfolds these images show the ordinary with all its beauty, uniqueness, complexity, magic, and mystery that we all hold within.
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- Annie Nashold, February 2022
ARTIST'S BIOGRAPHY
Annie Nashold was born in Montreal, Canada and grew up in Durham, North Carolina. She graduated from Duke University with a degree in Art Studio and with studies in Art History and Religion. She also studied at Penland School in Photography.
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Cooking and baking became her first profession. She studied at Cornell Hotel and Restaurant School and worked in restaurants in Connecticut and North Carolina. Annie was chef and owner of her own catering company, ‘Annie’s Kitchen’. Annie left the food business to become an Assistant Slide Curator for the Duke University Art Department. After three years, she returned to school and did masters work in Landscape Architecture at NC State University School of Design.
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As a volunteer, Annie founded ‘Into the Garden’, an award-winning Children’s Environmental Education Program for the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University. For twenty years she directed the program touching the lives of children of all ages, teachers, and parents. The focus of her work provided ways for children to learn from and to connect with the natural world. During this time, Annie wrote and self-published ‘Native Tales’ a teacher resource book which explored North Carolina native plants through culture, history, and ecology. With funding from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, every fourth-grade teacher in the five counties of the Research Triangle received a free copy for use in their classrooms.
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Upon retiring in 2011, Annie began painting full time. In 2019, she was awarded the Ella Fountain Press Emerging Artist 2020 prize in Painting. She has exhibited at the Durham Arts Council, Craven Allen Gallery, the Carrack Gallery, the Eno River Unitarian Fellowship Gallery, the Watts-Hillandale Art Walk, PS 118, Horse & Buggy Press & Friends, The Skylight Gallery, and Urban Durham Realty to name a few. Annie has worked as a gallery guide at the Nasher Museum of Contemporary Art at Duke University and studied Botanical Art and Illustration at the North Carolina Botanical Garden and taught watercolor painting and nature journaling at the NCBG Children’s Program. At the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke University, Annie co-taught a course called ‘Mapping, Collage, and Writing: Geography of Memory and Imagination’. Annie has worked with private students including those with mental challenges.
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