THE ART OF

NANCY ROACH

From Literal Interpretations to Abstract Explorations

My journey into the enigmatic world of the artist began with a box of crayons. As a small child I learned that when I expressed on paper what I saw or imagined, I could be the creator, transform my environment and transcend.

At the age of eight, after winning a city-wide art contest, I was enrolled in classes at The Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Along with academia’s required curriculum, I was fortunate to have art tutors and mentors. After receiving my BA, I became an apprentice to a Master Printmaker. Four years of intense practice led me to choose serigraphy as the way to express my art, and my professional career began.

Fifteen years later I stopped printmaking to explore other mediums such as water color, collage, oil, acrylic and pastel. I found pastel to be the medium that would most replicate the feeling I achieved in my serigraphs. Three years ago I took another leap by attempting abstract expressionism. This has been the most challenging experience so far, as I’ve had to learn to let go of the tight control required for printmaking, and the precise control needed for pastel and let the paint and my imagination fly. I have thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of this new challenge and expect to continue my journey from here.

"The purpose of the universe is play. The artists know this, and they know that play and art and creation are different names for the same thing—a thing which is sweats and agonies and ecstasies. The artists, who know more than anyone else about play, which is art which is creation, must be the leaders and the guides." Don Marquis