by Roxanne Phillips, MFA
Printmaker and Master Printer, Pele Prints
Roxanne: You are one of the founding members of Art Saint Louis. Could you tell us about the origins and how did you get involved?
R: What do you wish someone would ask you about you or your art?
NNR: The question no one has ever asked me is, “why do you paint?” The simple answer is, “because I have to.” I was encouraged to obtain a Ph.D. in Art History so as a test, I spent a summer semester at Berkeley taking a graduate level course in German Romanticism, a period of art with which I was unfamiliar. The class was wonderful, but the endless hours in the library meant I had no time for making art. I subsequently dismissed any thoughts of further study and have been painting every day since that time. I find that everything I see is catalogued for a potential painting, especially light and reflections as they occur in the built environment. As a result, I am not a good driver, as my attention tends to be on the passing sights, and I trip constantly while looking up or ahead of myself instead of looking at what is directly in front of me. Circumlinisti stibo ego cognito ergo sum, I paint therefore I am, (Latin scholars feel free to correct!).
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Nancy Newman Rice is an artist, curator, writer, and former art educator. She studied at Cornell University and holds a BFA and MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. Her works have been exhibited in galleries and museums and are included in numerous public and private collections throughout the U.S. and U.K. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts/MMA Fellowship for painting, an Artist’s Residency Award at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, and nominations for a Tiffany Award and AVA Award in the Visual Arts. Rice has written for American Craft Magazine, Fiber Arts, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the New Art Examiner. She is retired from Maryville University in St. Louis, MO, where she served as the Eleanor Lawler Pillsbury Chair of Art and as Director of Studio Art. Nancy’s work is represented locally by Duane Reed Gallery. Nancy serves on the Board of Artists First. We invite you to read our 2010 interview with Nancy written by former ASL intern Helen Wildi.
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Roxanne Phillips is an artist and art educator based in St. Louis since 2001. She earned a MFA in Printmaking & Drawing from Washington University in St. Louis and BFA in Painting & Drawing from University of North Texas. She has worked with Art Saint Louis since 2017 as Administrative Assistant and Installer and since 2018 as Master Printer for Pele Prints. She also works as adjunct art instructor at Washington University in St. Louis. Her works have been featured in numerous exhibitions throughout the St. Louis region including at Art Saint Louis, Crossroads Art Studio & Gallery, and St. Louis Artists’ Guild. Her work is currently available at Union Studio in St. Louis. She has served as exhibit Juror for several regional exhibits & art fairs. Roxanne is past Board member of St. Louis Women’s Caucus for Art.
Printmaker and Master Printer, Pele Prints
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| Nancy Newman Rice. Reflections I. 2019. Oil on Canvas on Panel, 24”x24”. Photo courtesy of the artist. |
Roxanne: You are one of the founding members of Art Saint Louis. Could you tell us about the origins and how did you get involved?
Nancy Newman Rice: Art
Saint Louis evolved from an organization in the late 1970s called ACCA (Arts
Coordinating Committee for the Area). This group was comprised of most of the
non-profit visual arts colleges and organizations in St. Louis and its purpose
was to pool resources in order to invite prominent artists to speak, usually at the Saint Louis Art Museum. We eventually morphed into an organization specifically for St. Louis artists. We did not have a space, but often met in Bill Kohn’s cavernous studio
where we also had figure drawing sessions.
At this time, we also started an art newspaper entitled The Seen, Patsy Degener and I edited it and I wrote the Missouri Arts Council grants that provided the funds to produce and print the paper. The articles ranged from scholarly to hilariously inappropriate. We were eventually absorbed by the New Art Examiner and I was appointed Missouri editor. We reviewed as many artists per month as could fit in our allotted page, and St. Louis had a voice.
During the late 1980’s we became a more cohesive group and sponsored one curated exhibit a year in an empty urban space. ACCA eventually became St. Louis Artists Coalition [later renamed Art Saint Louis in honor of our annual exhibit of the same name] and in the mid-1980s an office/gallery space was found in downtown St. Louis. In the early 1990s, Dion Dion was hired as Director with Robin Hirsch as Artistic Director (hired in 1989) and the organization grew to its present state with Chandler Branch at the helm.
At this time, we also started an art newspaper entitled The Seen, Patsy Degener and I edited it and I wrote the Missouri Arts Council grants that provided the funds to produce and print the paper. The articles ranged from scholarly to hilariously inappropriate. We were eventually absorbed by the New Art Examiner and I was appointed Missouri editor. We reviewed as many artists per month as could fit in our allotted page, and St. Louis had a voice.
During the late 1980’s we became a more cohesive group and sponsored one curated exhibit a year in an empty urban space. ACCA eventually became St. Louis Artists Coalition [later renamed Art Saint Louis in honor of our annual exhibit of the same name] and in the mid-1980s an office/gallery space was found in downtown St. Louis. In the early 1990s, Dion Dion was hired as Director with Robin Hirsch as Artistic Director (hired in 1989) and the organization grew to its present state with Chandler Branch at the helm.
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| Nancy Newman Rice. Afterwards I. 2019. Oil on Canvas on Sintra, 40''x40’’. Photo courtesy of the artist. |
R: What was it that first
prompted your career as an artist?
NNR: What
prompted my career, is a question with an easy answer, I cannot remember a time
when I was not drawing or painting. I was encouraged by my father, who, had he
been born in another generation, might have become a painter. I did my first
oil painting, with his paints, on the wall of our apartment when I was 2 ½
years old, he liked it, my mother did not. I also trained as a ballet dancer in a professional school and company
in New York, a back injury convinced me to attend college and major in art and art
history. I was also fortunate to get a full two-year scholarship, from
Washington University, which enabled me to earn an MFA. (I did teach 9 contact
hours a week, there is no such thing as a free lunch!). My first one-person
exhibit was at the Saint Louis Art Museum, Currents II, which sealed my fate.
If a national curator liked my work, then all the hours in my studio were more
than personal gratification. Full-time
teaching at Maryville University followed, along with children, but I managed
to paint every day and did not get much sleep.
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| Nancy Newman Rice’s metaphysical wall. Photo courtesy of the artist. |
R: What is one of your
favorite pieces of art (or grouping of art) that you own and why?
NNR: I have always traded work with artists I have known as friends or acquaintances, and their identities are an integral part of each piece, so it is difficult to point out singular favorites. My “metaphysical wall”, comprised of work I deem as having a spiritual component, is one of my favorites, as is a monoprint I traded with Jim McGarrell. I tend to like work that has not only content but also the potential for narrative.
NNR: I have always traded work with artists I have known as friends or acquaintances, and their identities are an integral part of each piece, so it is difficult to point out singular favorites. My “metaphysical wall”, comprised of work I deem as having a spiritual component, is one of my favorites, as is a monoprint I traded with Jim McGarrell. I tend to like work that has not only content but also the potential for narrative.
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| Nancy Newman Rice. Afterwards II. 2019. Oil on Canvas on Sintra, 40''x40’’. Photo courtesy of the artist. |
R: What do you find most
challenging/rewarding about the creative process?
NNR: The most challenging thing about the creative process is the period between paintings when I spend one or two weeks thinking visually by producing a series of drawings and then apply washes of color to enhance spatial effects and produce transparencies. I then study the drawings and reject most of them and start the process over again until I arrive at a drawing I like. My paintings take one to three months to paint and their success or failure is usually determined after one month. Failures, for me, are the most rewarding part of painting as they require active problem solving in order to bring the image together by changing spatial relationships, colors, and adding or subtracting elements that will ultimately produce an image that coincides or proceeds from my initial concept.
NNR: The most challenging thing about the creative process is the period between paintings when I spend one or two weeks thinking visually by producing a series of drawings and then apply washes of color to enhance spatial effects and produce transparencies. I then study the drawings and reject most of them and start the process over again until I arrive at a drawing I like. My paintings take one to three months to paint and their success or failure is usually determined after one month. Failures, for me, are the most rewarding part of painting as they require active problem solving in order to bring the image together by changing spatial relationships, colors, and adding or subtracting elements that will ultimately produce an image that coincides or proceeds from my initial concept.
 |
| Nancy Newman Rice at work in her studio. Photo courtesy of the artist. |
NNR: The question no one has ever asked me is, “why do you paint?” The simple answer is, “because I have to.” I was encouraged to obtain a Ph.D. in Art History so as a test, I spent a summer semester at Berkeley taking a graduate level course in German Romanticism, a period of art with which I was unfamiliar. The class was wonderful, but the endless hours in the library meant I had no time for making art. I subsequently dismissed any thoughts of further study and have been painting every day since that time. I find that everything I see is catalogued for a potential painting, especially light and reflections as they occur in the built environment. As a result, I am not a good driver, as my attention tends to be on the passing sights, and I trip constantly while looking up or ahead of myself instead of looking at what is directly in front of me. Circumlinisti stibo ego cognito ergo sum, I paint therefore I am, (Latin scholars feel free to correct!).
____________________________
____________________________
Roxanne Phillips is an artist and art educator based in St. Louis since 2001. She earned a MFA in Printmaking & Drawing from Washington University in St. Louis and BFA in Painting & Drawing from University of North Texas. She has worked with Art Saint Louis since 2017 as Administrative Assistant and Installer and since 2018 as Master Printer for Pele Prints. She also works as adjunct art instructor at Washington University in St. Louis. Her works have been featured in numerous exhibitions throughout the St. Louis region including at Art Saint Louis, Crossroads Art Studio & Gallery, and St. Louis Artists’ Guild. Her work is currently available at Union Studio in St. Louis. She has served as exhibit Juror for several regional exhibits & art fairs. Roxanne is past Board member of St. Louis Women’s Caucus for Art.
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