Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nicole Dikon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Nicole, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I have been an artist my entire life. My grandfather was a landscape painter, so my earliest memories of time spent with him were in his studio or in our family garden painting watercolors. He also had a woodshop where he would let my brother and I paint the wooden toys he would build for us. My mother and father are also both creatives. So my brother and I were raised to try different things, learn new skills and I have been going to art museums for as long as I can remember.

When it came to “formal training”, I went to community college in Florida and learned a lot there! Then I received my BFA from University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fl and my MFA from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.

From 2016-2022 I was studying with my mentor, Ke Francis in Tupelo Mississippi. I have had the privilege to work in a studio next to his. I learned a lot of the technical skills you need in printmaking, but more importantly he’s been very generous in sharing the details of what it means to be a professional artist. I’ve learned everything from how to move a two ton press down a two story building to the details of how to keep making when you’re in the middle of getting in your own way.

Speeding up learning is something I’m not in need of. I tend to move through the world a little too quickly-so in order for me to learn more comprehensively, I need to slow down-look back at what I’ve experienced and digest it further.
One thing I’m very happy I’ve learned over time is how to teach myself new skills. I think this in itself is a unique craft. Knowing what the best way is for me to learn something new has opened a lot of space for creative potential. Because of this my learning process is being refined every day.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

my work sprouts from the simplest indeterminate sense

depicting more than verge death organisms

freshly ground expectations

composted alongside considered traditions

allowing our vigorous grip of normalcy to disperse

changing infancy energy into visceral landscapes of amplified color

a falling into rest

where we can blossom into our own embodied environments

What drives my process is an attempt to understand and sometimes mimic the cycles of a natural ecosystem.
Everything in my studio has a value, from the scraped up ink to the paper scraps, they all have a function that is considered and reused in the system several times before they are reused again in the waste pile for rebirth. In doing so each image, object and place that is created, serves as a portal to an evolving relationship with the natural world, one where I can acknowledge our connectedness not just through an intelligent knowing, but a visceral and intuitive awareness.

I work in partnership with The Caron Gallery in Tupelo, Fischer Gallery in Jackson, Chauvet Arts in Nashville and Kelly Sueda Fine Arts in Honolulu. My work has been collected by institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art, The Center for Rare Books at Temple University, Kapiolani Medical Center, Sheraton Waikiki Hotel & The Wagner Free Institute of Science. I am currently an artist in residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley CA for the beginning of 2023.

While I love working with galleries and museums, I also am curating more online spaces to connect with people who are interested in my work and process. This has become more important to me over recent years as I think that artworks should be more accessible to people at any income level. There are so many spaces to do that in, so I’m excited to continue to share in that way more and more.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think this is an interesting question given that artists are so often the ones supporting society. You saw it during the Covid shutdowns, how artists took to whatever platforms they had to create spaces for community, healing, connection and respite.

I mention this because an acknowledgement of that is a great starting point for supporting artists. Artists are world makers in my opinion, they digest what we are going through as a society and create portals in whatever medium they work in, and through those portals there can be a moment of escape, possibility, truth, connection, understanding….endless possible experiences and spaces for people to enter. Many of these worlds are created to inspire and/or model better futures for everyone.

There are artists that have dedicated their lives to questioning and dreaming up better solutions for the future. Acknowledging this also includes the responsibility of considering them in the rebuilding of new systems.

Our systems in the US aren’t set up to truly support people in general-so relying on this system to support its creative people is negligent. As we continue to improve the systems that we live in, and strive to support everyone, we need to remember that the artists that have been made to “be creative” with how they support themselves within capitalism and “the grind” culture deserve the recognition of their importance in this society. This starts with deeper acknowledgement of their work and how we have treated them throughout history and currently.

Acknowledgement can come in so many different forms, but whatever form serves each person to have gratitude towards another I think is the best starting point for supporting artists.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I think people who are willing to share their experience with you are resources we often take for granted. Teachers, mentors, peers who you may not even agree with fully, have knowledge that you don’t, and lessons they are sharing that you are not hearing.

This is often thought of as a characteristic of being young, and I think to some degree that’s true, but I also think it’s a trait we are taught as a means of self protection.

People make objects and pass along knowledge-that’s what we do- so if you’re an artist or just a human looking for help, looking to learn skills, looking for a tool to borrow. Ask around! People are our greatest resource.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nicoledikon.com
• Instagram: @nicoledikon
• Facebook: Nicole Dikon
• Linkedin: Nicole Dikon
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nicoledikon
• Other: https://linktr.ee/nicoledikon

Image Credits
Head Shot by Adam Robinson from The Daily Journal of Tupelo MS