Nancy Erickson Dutmer

Media: Fabric Paint, Oil, Outside Art

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Biography:
Nancy Erickson Dutmer had theatrical and artistic upbringing which heavily influenced her creative path through life. Most of her adulthood was spent singing, acting, directing and choreographing in the theatre, including a costuming and choreography stint in LA with Christopher Lloyd, John Goodman and Jane Leeves. While she maintained this career, she pursued a college education to become an art teacher. Nancy became discouraged with teaching before graduation, so she focused on becoming a visual artist.
With several awards and art studies under her belt, she and her family left her birthplace of Illinois, and moved to Wisconsin. The Northwoods inspired paintings of lakes, fish, birch, dogs, deer and bears.
Growing tired of the local theme, Nancy longed to create theatrically staged art. She now paints with oils or works with bead embroidery to create award winning Circus themes, nudes, portraits and animals, all with a decidedly vintage flair about them.
Artist Statement:
Entertainment is the backbone of my art. Each piece starts with random inspiration which leads me generally to vintage photos, where colorful characters, themes and costuming commingle from various eras into my compositions.
When painting, I prefer to work in oils, but the theatrics shine more through painted fabric and bead embroidered art pieces. I conceived this technique to emulate my past profession on stage in dazzling costumes. As I hand stitch each sequin and bead upon my subject, the embellished fabric takes on weight similar to a beaded gown.
Fabric paints on stretched fabric became the foundation of this artistry, for the ease of sewing every bauble on by hand. My most ambitious project to date is a series I call 1960s: Fashion and Fame. These are hand painted/bead embroidered portraits of female icons of the sixties era. Still, I continue to waffle between oil painting and bead embroidery, as they both satisfy my artistic cravings in different ways, and they both feed into my desire for audience entertainment.

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