Traci Nickerson is a mixed media fiber artist who is proficient in a wide variety of arts such as knitting, dyeing, spinning yarn, tapestry weaving, abstract painting and mixed media. With her Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Communications, she ties all these threads together with a love of the interplay of color and texture.
Tell a little bit about how you first got into creating art.
It happened slowly over the last 20+ years. Prior to learning how to crochet in my early 30’s I really didn’t consider myself as creative. I had a very limited definition of creativity and art. I participated in a nine month web-based program where the focus was on learning to listen and trust my intuition. I was introduced to dozens of tools, systems, practices and ideologies and encouraged to simply keep an open mind and trust my instincts. I learned to communicate my thoughts and feelings in unconventional ways. I came out of that nine month program an artist.
My creative process is completely eclectic and filled with a wide range of emotions and inspirations
What themes does your work involve?
What I love about working in an abstract way is that every viewer will interpret the art and its title their own way. My art encourages self reflection, conversation and intuition. I title my art with everyday words as a means to encourage the viewer to be self reflective and explore their own interpretation of the art and its title.
What is important to you about the visual experiences you create?
I love contrasts. Contrasts in color, texture, shape, ideas, all of it. One of my favorite contrasts of the Autumn season are evergreen trees amid a variety of oak trees. Especially as different species of oak trees have a variety of leaf colors and schedules of when they drop their leaves. I share those visual contrast experiences through my art with a variety of color and texture contrasts. It is important to me to provide another avenue for thinking differently about contrast and differences. Different does not mean bad, it just means different.
What is the significance of material and color?
Two of my favorite things are color and texture. Combining and contrasting those two elements in unexpected ways keeps me motivated and fuels my creativity.
In the piece titled PARENT, which won 1st Place, the visual texture in the background; created with stencils and acrylic paint; contrasting against the physical texture of yarn in the foreground represents the push and pull of being a parent. And the complex relationship of parenting and being parented. Does the eyelash yarn in the upper right, invoke memories of someone who is outwardly bold and brash, yet inwardly soft and protective?
Do you work from memory, life, photographs, or from other resources? Describe your creative process
My creative process is completely eclectic and filled with a wide range of emotions and inspirations. Because my art has a half dozen different components and each component is completed at a different time, different components will have different emotions and inspirations embedded in them.
I am consistently inspired by the contrasts found in nature. Sometimes, pretty contrasts like autumn trees, sunsets and wild flowers growing along the side of the road. Other times, bald tires dumped by a railroad track, or a candy wrapper trapped in a patch of dandelion. The world is not always pretty, but there are always contrasts. It all comes together under my personal trinity of color, texture and contrast.
Do you have any artistic goals for the future that you would like to share?
So many goals, so little time! Some of the goals at the top of my mind today are working on loose canvas, working with fabric, going bigger, working with different shapes of stretched canvas, and doing a series where all the handspun yarn consists of
endangered sheep breeds. How big of a canvas can I work on before it becomes uncomfortable and unruly? Circles, rectangles and ovals yes, please. Yes, there are sheep breeds that are endangered frequently because they are not “meat sheep” and or their wool is not wanted by commercial producers.
What do you consider the role of an artist today?
For me, I feel that I have been gifted this skill, talent and opportunity to be a vehicle for my viewers to engage in conversation about things that matter to them. Having a conversation with yourself is a valid and encouraged form of conversation. We are all members of multiple communities and contributing to a community means communicating, listening, encouraging and supporting each other. My art is a vehicle for me to open a dialogue and listen and support others as they have dialogue with me or with themselves.
