Ree Nancarrow has been interested in art from a young age. She was introduced to quilting, and fiber arts became her medium of choice. A summer job in Alaska changed her life and now influences her art.
How did you find yourself on an artist’s path? Always there? Lightbulb moment? Dragged kicking and screaming? Evolving?
I have always been interested in art, but when I grew up the only “safe” future for an artist was to become an art teacher. I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in art education.
You’ve worked across many mediums. How did you select fiber? Or did it select you.
The art classes I concentrated on in college were printmaking classes. I married right out of college but continued working as an artist in spite of living remotely and having two sons.
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I produced limited edition silkscreen prints for about 10 years until I became sick from the fumes. For the next 10 years, I shifted to illustration and hand-spinning fibers, mostly dog fur. I used the yarn I produced to weave or needlepoint canvases that were combined with wooden elements made by my husband to make wall sculptures.
I was introduced to quilting by my sister in the early 1990’s, and that has been my media of choice ever since. It was a natural transition: my interest in all aspects of fiber has been life-long.
From my mother and my grandmother, I learned to embroider before I started school and started to make all my own clothing in Junior High. I made all my kid’s outdoor clothing when they grew up because it was impossible to find warm outdoor clothing for kids at that time.
The fabrics I use in my work change constantly. I started using commercial fabrics in the 1990’s, taking classes to learn how well-known fiber artists expressed their ideas.
I then learned to make my own fabrics, including immersion dyeing, clamp dyeing, painting, silk screening, and deconstructed silk screening.
In 2020 I was the recipient of a Rasmuson Individual Artist’s Grant. With that grant I purchased an iPad Pro, and took 2 classes from Susie Monday, Art for the iPad and Collage for the iPad.
That launched me into creating most of my work digitally. I use images and ideas that I have collected and designed over my entire art career. These include images of drawings, immersion and clamp-dyed fabric, silk-screened and deconstructed silk-screened fabrics, quilts that I have made, and photographs. I can layer, experiment with, and express ideas that have interested me for years with my new skills.
My son Eric is exceptionally gifted in using the computer for graphic design, and he has been invaluable in helping me solve problems. The fabrics I design are printed commercially; his expertise has allowed me to send images that come back the colors I want and expect them to be.
How does your environment influence your creativity? Is there an overarching theme that connects all of your work?
I came to Alaska for a summer job near Denali National Park, met my husband, and lived remotely in that area for all my married life. We lived on a small pond that had many animal visitors; much of our life was spent observing wildlife.
After receiving my degree in art education, I worked towards a masters in botany. My husband was the first naturalist in Denali National Park, so we were always observing the world around us.
I was accepted into the “In Time of Change” program in 2010, and each new version of the program ever since. It offers opportunities for artists to work with scientists in selected fields for 1-2 years, then contribute work to an art exhibit at the end of the collaboration. The knowledge and deeper understanding of the natural world I have gained from working with these scientists has changed how I see the world, and how I describe it visually.
Does your work have stories to tell?
I became interested in telling stories in the early 2000’s. Much of my work centers around change – climate change, seasonal change, erosional change, change over time. It became even more important as I began working with scientists as part of the ITOC program in 2010.
When it comes to creating, are you more of a planner or an improviser?
I am an improvisor on many levels.
I took classes from Nancy Crow in the 1990‘s and learned to work improvisationally with fabric, cutting and sewing without rulers and templates. I still to use this approach to construction.
I produced very large abstract pieces working that way until 2006, when I was accepted as an Artist in Residence at Denali National Park. I spent my two weeks in Denali Park doing very representational drawings which then became very important images in subsequent work.
I work with units that I mix and combine as I develop a piece. This allows me to make major changes in the piece right up until the very end if I want to.
Describe your creative space.
About 10 years ago, I was able to help design and buy a condo that was being built in Fairbanks. I have both a dye studio and a sewing studio that are spacious, well-lighted and well-designed.
Are you a “finisher”? How many UFOs do you think you have?
Occasionally I have pieces that I just cannot resolve. I am not sure how many of them there are, but I pull one out occasionally to work on.
My Alaska SAQA group recently started doing quarterly critique sessions. I asked for input on a piece that I had been unable to resolve; the input was excellent, and I was able to resolve the piece.
I also ask friends for their input. They know I may or may not follow through on their ideas and also know I will not be offended by any observations they make. Sometimes an observation from someone else will make me look at the piece in a different way and be helpful.
How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?
Years ago a very close artist friend asked me how I get inspired to work. My children were small, and my response was “Having a period of time that I know I can work with relatively few interruptions.”
I have taken classes from artists steadily throughout my career and have worked with scientists to learn new things about our natural world, both of which give me numerous ideas to explore. I will never run out of ideas.
Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your works? How does a new work come about?
Salmon in the Trees is a collaboration I did with Margo Klass for the current ITOC Boreal Forest Echoes show at the Bear Gallery in Fairbanks, AK. We were interested in how nutrients from salmon are of vital importance to large areas of Alaska.
Salmon swim up rivers into the interior of Alaska to spawn. When they die, they are ingested by birds and mammals who spread nutrients to the forest through their fecal deposits, providing crucial benefits to all forest vegetation.
Margo and I worked with Ray Hander, US Fish and Wildlife biologist, and Carol McIntyre, wildlife biologist with Denali National Park and Preserve, to learn more about this. They generously provided their expertise and enthusiasm as we explored this topic. The layered imagery of my art quilt and the boreal birch and salmon skin elements in Margo’s flitch books interpret this interrelationship.
Which part of the design process is your favorite? Which part is a challenge for you.
I enjoy all aspects of the design process. If I am telling a story, I enjoy learning about it and deciding what aspects to show. If I am experimenting with a new technique, it is fun to see how I can use it to my advantage in expressing my idea.
How has your creativity evolved over the years? What triggered the evolution to new media/kinds of work/ways of working?
I have taken many, many classes to learn new skills to work with new media and techniques. Each one has allowed me to express myself in some new way, triggering the complexity of the story I can tell, or give me a better or more unusual way to depict that story.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
No idea or piece of fabric is precious. Don’t be afraid to use it.
Where can people see your work?
The best place to currently see my work is on my website, or on the websites of galleries where I have had recent solo shows. I will have a solo show at the Alaska State Museum in December of 2024, which will have a very extensive display of my work.
Bunnell Street Arts Center, Homer, AK, Ree Nancarrow and Margo Class exhibit
Composing in the Wilderness https://www.composinginthewilderness.com/elements
Visions Museum of Textile Art
https://vmota.org/consequences/
Interview published September 2024
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