Nicole Williford

"My creative practice is primarily concerned with interpreting reality through representational imagery. I move through many mediums - printmaking, drawing, painting, and weaving - but my work is very focused on people and their environments.  Although the subject and rendering of my work is realistic in a certain sense, my use of intense, surreal color creates artwork which buzzes with emotion and visual sensation. It is very important to me that I devotedly follow my creative impulses and interests. I find deep satisfaction in exploring those intuitive directions and interrogating my work in order to make it stronger.

For the past 5 years I have worked almost exclusively from my grandfather's photography, a vast collection of images documenting my family's suburban life between 1940-2000. I also mix in my own photography and my collection of found 35mm slides. Using these references, I create work which is both very personal and also widely relatable. My paintings often crop to smaller sections, abstracting the original subjects and creating room for viewers to consider themselves part of the scene. There is a strong nostalgia present in my work - evoked through imagery, color and mark making."