Ultimately, Nickel Art Studio is just another nature-loving person from the pacific northwest, Oregon specifically. While she’s not huge on sharing her face on social media, it has been put here for your reference. She will sometimes introduce herself as Nickel or Nicole and loves a good nickname, even though all of her work is signed with her birth name because her sense of self is a smidge volatile but she also hates paperwork.

She lives with her husband, who is extremely supportive and can be found helping her at shows, lugging product, and making delicious pasta dishes in his spare time.

Nickel has traveled all over the USA but has never been outside it, but dreams are good to have, right? When she’s not immersed in the world of art, she enjoys studying agriculture and pop culture history (mainly involving the music and animation industry), while also reading and being a casual nerd about tabletop roleplaying games.

Thoughts about being an independent working artist:

It’s hard. It’s never just one job, and it can be difficult to feel like an artist when doing admin tasks, or crunching numbers, or scheduling social media posts. It hasn’t gotten any easier with Plagiarism Machines and Corporate Interests interfering with the indie art scene.

But I enjoy being able to create and explore for myself, and sharing my journey with others, and experiencing their journey in turn. The digital overload has definitely pushed me to get back into making things with my own hands, instead of ordering factory-made merch (though stickers aren’t going anywhere). Lately I’ve been getting into fiber crafts, including sewing, crocheting, and needle felting, which I have an on-again, off-again relationship with. I also enjoy the challenge of blockprinting and have taken up whittling, which I’ve always loved the idea of and for some reason never tried until now.

I love being a multi-disciplinary creator because the world is a big place, brimming with beauty and inspiration, and there are so many ways to celebrate it. I love learning new things, and I’m always hungry for the next experience.

I have to blink really hard sometimes, but I am looking forward with hope and ambition, and I’m very grateful for my cabal of fellow creatives and oddballs that enrich my existence and keep my world turning.