First Friday opening is April 5, 5-8pm, with live music: glorious piano by Michael Wilson, guitar by John Kibrick, and Himalayan bells and bowls by Bill Allen.

https://mamasmedicinal.com

Nancy MacLeod- Folk Art Fantasy Paintings

My main goal in creating art is to make political, social and spiritual commentary in a way that is playful and fun to have around. I like to paint pictures about things I think have an important message. Some of those things are really very ugly, like war, injustice, environmental destruction…but I don’t like to paint ugly things. The idea I want to convey is often serious, the execution is meant to be fun, playful, so as not to scare the viewer away, but to give them pause to think on it without being beaten over the head. I paint in what I call “Primitive Narrative” style, or “Folk Art Fantasy”, acrylic on canvas.

I grew up in the beauty of oak trees and yuccas in southern California’s chaparral, now long gone, replaced by freeways and McMansions. From the time I was a little kid, I drew and painted and made things every day. By High School, which had a fabulous art department, the format was such that I was able to take 8 art classes my senior year. The camaraderie and inspiration of working together with my fellow art students was exhilarating, and very fun! There was no competition or criticism, only mutual encouragement.

The year after high school I spent studying with painters Ed Seagaitz and Jo Mahoney in Claremont, Calif. I then moved north and put myself through Calif. College of Arts and Crafts making one-of-a-kind art-to-wear garments, and graduated with Distinction with a major in Fine Arts, emphasis in painting, in 1972. I lived and made art in the Bay Area until 2003, when we moved up to Philo in Anderson Valley.