Nancy Boyd
After working as a designer and architectural renderer in Vancouver for many years, Nancy taught drawing and painting at Capilano University for 23 years while also maintaining an active studio practice. Her work retains the influence of those years and experiences, notably in her fascination with the conflation of scales and viewpoints. Much of her work shows enjoyment with the intersection of science and aesthetics or of the rational and the deeply felt. She takes great pleasure in being a witness to things in the world that create a sense of wonder in us.
"I think it's important to remind ourselves to continue to be in awe of the world. I like to look for beauty in unconventional places; hence the 'brain' imagery or the bizarre microbial forms, for instance. The strange subject matter can sometimes abruptly create a new way of seeing better and more effectively than the conventionally beautiful thing.
By functioning in a small and particular way, I am creating evidence of my own searching and curiosity; why do humans persist in having 'belief'; what are we actually here for; is there some meaning to our presence? I look for hints to the answers in the abundance of forms around me. I am looking for the universal by witnessing and recording the particular, often in highly re-ordered or abstracted ways. My searching may take me to the interior of the body, to the atmosphere of space or to the cell under a microscope. In this way I often think I have the same kind of curiousity as a scientist, though I have completely different methods. Instead of looking for any 'proofs' in my work, I want only to witness and to take pleasure in creating and to be curious about what I see and what it might mean."
"I think it's important to remind ourselves to continue to be in awe of the world. I like to look for beauty in unconventional places; hence the 'brain' imagery or the bizarre microbial forms, for instance. The strange subject matter can sometimes abruptly create a new way of seeing better and more effectively than the conventionally beautiful thing.
By functioning in a small and particular way, I am creating evidence of my own searching and curiosity; why do humans persist in having 'belief'; what are we actually here for; is there some meaning to our presence? I look for hints to the answers in the abundance of forms around me. I am looking for the universal by witnessing and recording the particular, often in highly re-ordered or abstracted ways. My searching may take me to the interior of the body, to the atmosphere of space or to the cell under a microscope. In this way I often think I have the same kind of curiousity as a scientist, though I have completely different methods. Instead of looking for any 'proofs' in my work, I want only to witness and to take pleasure in creating and to be curious about what I see and what it might mean."