BIO
Originally born in Grenada, West Indies, Lorna Nakell has been a professional artist for over twelve years. She received her BFA from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA in 1994. Although she has lived many places in the Northwest since her childhood, Portland, OR is now her home. A selection of her exhibitions include Grants Pass Museum of Art, Grants Pass, OR, Portland Art Center, Portland, OR, Fetherston Gallery, Seattle, Limner Gallery, NY, NY, and the St. Louis Artist’s Guild, Clayton, MO. Most recently Nakell received a Project Grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, a Residency at Weir Farm Art Center and a Career Opportunity grant from the Oregon Arts Commission.
Nakell is a project based artist. She is mainly focused on building collections of art pieces centered on a theme or event. Self imposed rules dictating materials, size and imagery to be used are created for each project independently of others. Although painting styles and techniques tend to differ from project to project paintings still share some commonalities: multimedia exploration, strong focus on color and design elements, and implied narrative.
Subject matter for Nakell’s paintings often comes from poems and literature. Though she admits to not being an expert on either, Nakell often finds poignant content that works to reflect her personal life experiences. Some ongoing themes in her work include nature, art history, myths and childhood. Geoffrey Garza (artist and educator from Seattle, WA) says of Nakell, “The strength of her work lies not only in her artistic technique, a superbly chilling and mentholated handling of paint and composition, but in her ability to communicate a narrative.”