Nikki Mcclure

Last week I went to PNCA to see Nikki Mcclure chat about her cut paper art.  She's awesome.  I love her work and was pleased to like her in person just as much. 

When I first moved to the Pacific Northwest (almost 10 years ago) I saw her calendars in many of my new friend's homes.  The images and words were all about what I was discovering out here, nature and a more grounded and thoughtful way of life.  I was a little intimidated by all these sincere and unselfish people, but I caught on after awhile.

Since I've lived in Portland, I've started to grow food:

    

I've slowed down:

I've ditched the car (ok, that's not true, I never had a car in Chicago either, but now I have some pretty strong ideas about why I don't have a car and don't want one.) :

I mend things, I reuse, (I fricking wash plastic baggies!), I fix:

and I've even started to ferment foods on top of my refrigerator! :

She told us she thinks the world is a mess and people need to get to work to fix it.  Her art is basically her way of telling people what to do.  But she's clever and makes it all very lovely so you want to hang it up in your kitchen. 

She also talked a lot about being an artist and gave some good advice:
-"Don't wait for permission, and don't wait for that phone call, just start."
-"Make plenty of mistakes."
-"Make your own economy - give your work to nonprofits, trade it for food, hang it up in local shops."
-"When all else fails, sweep your studio floor."


Well, now I'm off to

to all this.