Artist Bio & Statement

Artist Bio:

As the firstborn in a large family where art was valued, Violet aspired early to become an artist. An inspirational teacher in public school, who challenged students to draw the stuffed birds he brought to class and taught two-point perspective, fed that aspiration. However, over time she felt she was better at words.

Though she took some art history and studio courses at university, nothing developed from them and writing became her siren call as a creative outlet. In addition to various day jobs including working as a care aide, teaching, and medical transcription (and parenting of course), she found expression as a freelance writer, poet, and book author.

That changed in 2017 when, after her brother declined her request to illustrate a children’s book she was working on, she decided to delve back into art and maybe do it herself. A Christmas gift of sketching pencils and a sketchbook opened the art floodgates.

Life became a series of “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear” [1] experiences as she pursued Bible Art Journaling, watercolor painting, and establishing a daily sketchbook practice. Joining Instagram opened her eyes to the many aspects of modern artistic expression and she got hooked on “oh shiny—I want to try that!” Though the book illustration project never came to fruition, her crush on art continues.

Besides gleaning information from the art books she has collected she has taken online instruction from various teachers:

Past and current exhibitions are listed on the News page.

The gift that lured me back to art – Violet Nesdoly journal sketch

Artist Statement:

I create depictions of nature and the stuff of everyday life using watercolor, acrylic, and mixed media. I love the design, complexity, and beauty of the natural world and attempting to recreate it in two dimensions is a continuous challenge and joy. It feels like my years of attempting to paint pictures with words (I spent years as a writer) have morphed into art, as so ably expressed by poet Edward Hirsch: “Poetry and music are sister arts. So are poetry and painting. It’s as if the eye and the ear were related through poetry, as if they had become siblings or lovers.” [2]

My many-year habit of always carrying a camera with me on walks has given me an archive of thousands of photos which I use as references for my paintings. “Anything can be drawn and it becomes beautiful once it’s on the page,” says sketch journal diva Samantha Dion Baker. [3] My hope is that my art will open the eyes of the viewer to the extraordinary beauty in the ordinary world that surrounds us.

Endnotes:

[1] Attributed to Buddha and the Theosophists.

[2] Edward Hirsch in How to Read a Poem, Harcourt, Brace & Co., Durham, N. Carolina, 1999, p. 17.

[3] Samantha Dion Baker, from a video posted on her Facebook page.