Elements of the Natural: Art by Nicole Richards
Nicole Richards is an artist trained in printmaking who works in print and other media. In her current portfolio, Nicole uses her artwork as a way of expressing the sense of awe she feels when confronted with elements of the natural world.
As her inspiration might suggest, Nicole’s subject matter is frequently fauna -- birds and small animals factor into a large portion of her works. I like Nicole’s recent paintings of animals interacting with their environments in anthropomorphized ways, such as a hedgehog knocking at a tiny door embedded in a tree trunk. I also enjoy the sculptural element that Nicole brings to some of her works -- many of the artist’s pieces are painted directly onto disks cut from trees, and some installations feature cut-out paintings of birds that inhabit the space in quite a different way than they would if they were simply paintings.
There’s a common thread in Nicole’s portfolio of a collision between the natural and man-made worlds, one that also hearkens to timely issues of environmentalism and conservation.
