Nancy Cheairs

About Nancy Cheairs

Nancy Cheairs was born in Memphis, Tn. She earned her BFA degree from The Memphis College of Art in 1980 and MFA from the University of Memphis in 2007. She has shown her paintings in galleries throughout the country and is in many private, corporate and museum collections. View Nancy’s work at her website, www.nancycheairs.com. She says this about her teaching philosophy:

I believe that technical mastery of materials can be taught through some demonstration, but mostly through constant and persistent practice from the student. I believe that to instill a desire to learn more, I need be fully engaged with the class. I need to set up challenges that are difficult but attainable for the level of expertise. I believe that by asking more questions rather than providing answers cultivates an atmosphere of curiosity and inquisitiveness in the classroom that will promote a desire for further exploration. I believe that to be a good teacher who promotes a desire for more, I need to be fully engaged with the class and fully engaged with my own private life as an artist.

Artist Statement

I am very much aware of how the past influences the present. The past is a living thing, and although it is seemingly invisible, I am constantly reminded of its existence. The past has a transformative power on the world in both literal and figurative ways. There is the personal past, made up of one’s memories and experiences, which guides us when we make consequential decisions: and there is a collective past which makes up a vast tapestry of memories, feelings and emotions, weaving in and out of one another.

That blended tapestry of collective and personal memories becomes the landscape of my paintings. The fields of color and pattern are informed by objects seen in nature and other recognizable forms. The known world is abstracted and the atmospheres of the paintings are more like a dream than a reality.

Various figures, also abstracted, explore this strange place. The world around them becomes a source of inspiration and meaning, which supports the discovery of some fragmented truth about the connections between nature and the self. The merging of abstraction with identifiable objects is a central visual element in my work. My hope is that the viewer will form a personal connection, or inner dialogue, with these paintings. My intention is to create a world of private metaphors that communicates with the viewer on a metaphysical level.

- Nancy Cheairs