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nora othic: pastels & paintings

Additional artist reception, Saturday, March 28, 5-8 pm

February 20 to March 28, 2015
Opening reception, February 20, 6-9 pm

Ms. Othic of Brookfield, Missouri, began her career in the early 1990s. Graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a BFA, she studied with Professor Frank Stack, a noted artist/educator. Her strong drawing skills and evolving style has led some to describe her work as “regionalist-like” similar to Thomas Hart Benton or Grant Wood. This contemporary regionalist’s work presents rural farm scenes, small town landscapes and prize farm animals; all icons of mid-America. Her art reflects the lifestyle her subjects embrace and the community in which she lives. Many of her works are pure storytelling with the pride of her subjects self-evident – plus a dash of tongue-in-cheek humor. The majority are rendered with pastels whose textural qualities fit her subjects well.

She has recently been showing in western Missouri, Kansas and Iowa with numerous gallery and museum exhibitions. Recent solo shows were held at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph (2012), and The Late Show Gallery in Kansas City (2013 and 2014). Plus, she has participated in numerous group shows most recently at Avila University in Kansas City. Her work is held by many public and private collections. She has participated in the Historic Shaw Art Fair in St. Louis numerous times, as well as other regional fairs.

Artist Statement
"For some time now I have been referring to myself as a Neo-Regionalist. It is my own term and somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but also an accurate description. I am combining the subject matter and bravura attitude of artist like Benton and Woods with the elevation of everyday life and objects to an iconic status that is characteristic of the Pop movement. I throw in bits and pieces of Baroque, Modern and cartoon art… anything is fair game.

I try to make my work many-layered, both in meaning and technique. A drawing of a bull is just that, an exploration of the form of the actual animal, but it is also an experiment in color, line and composition, and a venture into the psychology of human-bovine relations. There is always an undercurrent of humor in my work. This may just be the fact that I'm depicting a heroic dachshund or an elegant swine, or it may be something more subtle, as in an improbable aqua sky.

Looking at my own work over several years, my interest in the ordinary aspects of life, particularly that of rural areas or small towns, has not changed. What has evolved is a growing confidence that allows me to make the work as abrasive, humorous and/or energetic as I want it to be."

See more of Nora’s work >