We recently connected with Nancy Natow-Cassidy and have shared our conversation below.

Nancy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
The most meaningful to me is when I hear “Your work makes me so happy!”

We all have stress and problems. When I see people’s faces light up and hear that comment, I can’t begin to tell you how important and meaningful that is to me. Color makes me happy. I breathe deeper and my heart expands in the presence of color and organic shapes. Apparently it does the same for many people, and I’m thrilled to be the catalyst for that.

While I often despair at the state of the world, and sometimes make paintings that express those feelings; the anger and frustration of violence and war, of racism and anti-semitism, I really try to “be here now” and am filled awe and wonder at the beauty of the natural world, and try to express that in my art.

I love movement and dance, and have always been drawn to organic shapes. When out walking in the woods, I’ll pick up a stick and move with it, tracing the shapes of trees and branches in the air, the stick extending the reach of my arm, making me feel bold and strong. When I get back to my studio, those gestures express themselves in pigment. As an old dancer, I feel that fluid energy infuses my work.

In March of 2020, as the pandemic took hold and we quarantined at home, I looked for inspiration. In the midwest, winter snow had mostly melted, and everything was gray and brown. It was still too cold and wet for me to go outside to paint, so I stretched the largest canvas I’d ever done, and decided to focus on remembering the warmth and colors of the nearby pond in summer. I revel in studying water with its’ constantly moving reflections of sun and plants that grow along its edges. This seemed like a good time to push some pigment around and try to capture that experience.
Because of the scale of the piece, I felt like I was standing at a peaceful waters edge. When George Floyd was murdered I had a upwelling of anger and revulsion at the racist inhumanity of it. I dipped my hands in red paint and smashed and punched my hands on the canvas, the paint dripping like blood. I couldn’t help myself, I had to express how vile this, and other unprovoked murders, were. I let that painting sit, unable to recall joyful beauty to continue. It was only after the Black Lives Matter demonstrations grew across this country and the world, that I began to feel hopeful. ALL People want to live free from danger, from racism, from violence. All people, especially those who’s lives have been touched or changed by violence, want to enjoy beauty and peace without fear. I knew that for them, I had to finish the painting. I decided to allow beauty to partially overtake some of the red, the blood, without covering over all of it. This painting has been one that garners the most comments, about how beautiful it is.

I am so grateful that when people see it, and all my other paintings, they feel a sense of joy, beauty and happiness.

Nancy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I love to express positive colorful energy and bring it into peoples lives. I have a ravenous eye, constantly noticing color and shapes, finding interest everywhere. I take a zillion photographs, some great, some not so much. I’m enamored of the world we live in and want to capture and remember it, even the smallest detail. Whether a single light in the darkness, flowers, reflections on water, or a colorful wrapper in an incongruous place, the world we live in is free for our viewing pleasure; I try to take advantage of it every day. All of it is inspiration for me to commit the experience of color as energy to canvas. While I don’t use photographs to copy from, the act of seeing, of noticing, of capturing what I see, informs what ends up on the canvas.

For many years I was a prop stylist for photography, which meant I was the person who would put together the look of a photograph. For food photography, I’d choose backgrounds, napkins, glassware, plates, to convey what the recipe was, where it was from, or who it was for. I worked for a textile company, creating and designing their fabric sample books, advertising, writing press releases, and even got to name colors, and put them in order for display. Occasionally I would create a custom colorway painting for fabric textiles. I’ve always worked with color, textures and forms.

I’m looking into turning some of my paintings into printed fabrics. There is one that I would love to turn into an area rug, titled Carpet of Light. This particular one makes so much sense to me as a rug, it’s reflections in water, are a kind of “ground.” It would be like living with a beautiful pond in your room.

Although I haven’t put prices on my website yet, most of the pieces there are available for purchase. Many people have called my work uplifting, and suggested that they would be wonderful in hospitals and hotels, which I am happy to explore.

Have you ever had to pivot? 

Like many people, Covid changed many things for me, most especially work, and the amount of “free” time I had. My husband and I have a food photography business that mainly worked with a restaurant and hospitality magazine and foodservice companies. When restaurants shut down, some advertisers decided to hold onto their dollars and the magazine went from being about food and recipes, to being about employee wellness and “how do we pivot to stay in business,” articles that no longer required us taking as many photos. Consequently I had time on my hands with less income. Although I had been painting for a long time, I hadn’t really ever tried selling my work. The combination of the shutdown, and having a significant birthday, I realized, well, its now or never, what am I waiting for? So, I dove headfirst into placing my work in public spaces, updating my website, getting busy on social media, entering shows and generally trying to get my work in front of people. I’ve gotten a large commission and sold many paintings since. The effort has definitely paid off.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice) 

Although I know artists who have had great success with NFTs, I haven’t ventured into that field. I experience, and I think other people experience, such a visceral reaction standing in front of one of my paintings, that I have a hard time envisioning how that would work as an NFT, although I’ve seen some AI involved works that are amazing. At this point, I’m busy making more paintings and working on reels, instagram postings, and still wanting to add a linktree with more information, that I just haven’t had the time to explore NFTs. Perhaps that will be a future project.

Contact Info:

• Website: Nancynatowcassidy.com
• Instagram: @dancinarts
• Linkedin: Nancy Natow-Cassidy
• Twitter: Nancy Natow-Cassidy