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Nancy Rourke

Artist’s Statement

"My eyes are my 'ears' and my hands are my 'communicator.'
I paint from what I see."

Biography

Nancy grew up in San Diego and lived in Rochester, New York, in Seattle, Washington, in Denver, Colorado and now in Loveland, Colorado. The doctor thought Nancy had learning disability and speech impairment, not knowing she was actually born deaf until six years later. She wore a boxed hearing aid with scraps around her chest and two wires connected to her hard ear molds. Painting and drawing during her childhood was her way of expressing herself. Eventually, she went on to study painting and graphic design at Rochester Institute of Technology.  She has been painting ever since and has had shows in many areas in the country.

As for her style in painting, Nancy admits she does not have a favorite artist but has a favorite art movement that showed a specific style with its own philosophy, followed by a group of artists during a period of time. She looks at that art movement and considers it as a new avant-garde in today's modern art.  Fauvism has been a strong influence for her.  She sees brilliant colors, new primitive elements, expressive brushworks, flat compositions, and always-new ideas in their paintings.  Her subject matters are generally to what she sees she paints.

Most of her art works are exhibited at the Access Gallery in the Santa Fe Art District in Denver.

Curriculum Vitae 1978-2008

Awards and Honors
2008 Heartland Arts Festival Southeast Nebraska Regional Program for the Deaf Students, Lincoln, Nebraska
2006 Juried Sweet-Art Show, Loveland, Colorado merit
2005 Celebrate America, Detroit, Michigan second
2005 Juried Sweet-Art Show, Loveland, Colorado second
2002 Regional Juried Show, Loveland, Colorado second
2002 Edmund Lyon Memorial Lectureship, Rochester, New York

Solo Exhibitions
2008 SOLO of Nancy Rourke's Joie de Vivre at Access Gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District, Denver, CO
2007 SOLO of Nancy Rourke's work at Kalediscope Gallery #113 in Bassett, Nebraska
2007 Featured Artist, Studio 6 Coffeehouse at Nine10 Arts, in the Santa Fe Arts District, Denver, CO
2007 Artist of the Month, Barnes & Noble Bookstore, Loveland, Colorado
2006 Featured Artist, VSA arts Access Gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District, Denver, CO
2005 Featured Artist, VSA arts Access Gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District, Denver, CO
2004 Featured Artist, Lincoln Gallery, Loveland, Colorado
2004 Art Stroll, Loveland Museum and Gallery, Loveland, Colorado
2002 Honored Lecturer Exhibition, Dyer Arts Center, Rochester, New York
1985 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York

Selected Group Exhibitions
2007 June Juried Show, Lincoln Gallery, Loveland, Colorado
2007 99 Pieces of Art, VSA arts Access Gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District, CO
2007 Art Students League Gallery, Denver, Colorado
2006, 2007 Two Deaf Artists Show, The Children's Hospital Gallery, Denver, Colorado
2005 Celebrate America Deaf Art, Holley Ear Institute, Detroit, Michigan
2005 Juried Sweet-Art Show, Lincoln Gallery, Loveland, Colorado
2002 Regional Juried Show, Lincoln Gallery, Loveland, Colorado
1986 Twelve Deaf Artists, Ankrum Gallery, Beverly Hills, California
1978 Deaf American Artists, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Selected Bibliography
Spotlight on Nancy Rourke, SIGNews by Raymond Luczak 2007.
RIT/NTID Deaf Art/Deaf Artists, Deaf Artist in Painting., February 2005.
Deaf Artist Colorado in Art Registry, VSA, Washington, D.C., December 2005.
Deaf Woman Artist Receives Lyons Lectureship, Deaf Rochester News, April/May 2002.
Rourke Named NTID Distinguished Lecturer, RIT News & Events, Vol. 34, No. 13. March 14, 2002.
Signs of Success, Loveland Daily Herald-Reporter, Focus, Section B, March 4, 2002.

Lectures
2008 Heartland Arts Festival Southeast Nebraska Regional Program for the Deaf Students, Lincoln, Nebraska
2008 Panel discussion at Colorado symposium "Art Works- a Conversation about Careers in the Art", Denver, CO
2002 Edmund Lyon Memorial Lectureship Award at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York

Selected Commissions
2007 City Park, Denver, 24inch by 30inch oil on canvas for Women's Vision Foundation, Denver, Colorado

Private Collections
The Children's Hospital, Denver, Colorado
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York
Saint John the Evangelist, Loveland, Colorado
American School for the Deaf, West Hartford , Connecticut

Memberships
Fine Art America, online Art Gallery
VSA arts, Access Gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District, Denver, Colorado
VSA arts, Artists Registry, Washington, D.C.

2008 © Nancy Rourke Design All rights reserved.
Last updated: April 1, 2008