Nancy Hilliard Joyce was born in Greenville, South Carolina and was accepted into the Governor’s School for the Arts in Visual Art by the age of 16. Since then, Nancy has lived and studied art throughout the United States and abroad including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, New Jersey, New York, England and Italy. From each of these places, she has gathered information and expanded her knowledge and application for the arts.
Nancy originally moved to Asheville in 1997 after completing her Masters in Art Education from the University of New Mexico. At that time, she lived in an area along the French Broad River called, “Chicken Hill” in a small one-room house which sits above what is now known as Asheville’s “River Arts District” [RAD]. Nancy worked as an artist out of her house as there was no formal RAD association at that time. In addition to working as a visual artist, Nancy also worked as an Outreach Curator at the Asheville Art Museum. She left Asheville a few years later to live and travel throughout the United States and abroad. Finally, Nancy returned to Asheville again in June of 2011 with her husband and two children. Today she sits on the Board of Trustees at the Asheville Art Museum and is an active member of the River Arts District Association.
Nancy’s paintings are intricate in form and filled with layers of color and perspective. Her paintings are most often created with a range of matte acrylic hues, various hand-made papers and finished with touches of oil colors. You can sometimes witness her sand or wipe down layers to reveal under-layers and build up other sections creating texture and depth; a process that may go on for weeks or end in one day. Often times, Nancy will incorporate the wheel image throughout her work. From Nancy’s perspective, the cyclical nature of the wheel represents the continuous flow of things in life.
Nancy’s influences are garnered mainly from her own desire to create rather than from outside influences. However, she hints at inspirations from the works of Jasper Johns [and his paintings of the American flag], the late period of Mark Rothko’s “multiforms”, the architectural style of Santiago Calatrava and Georgia O’ Keeffe’s macro views of nature. Nancy’s creativity emerges throughout her work in a way in which normal, everyday objects are often painted with extreme and exaggerated perspective. Today, Nancy’s work is appreciated and widely collected throughout the United States and abroad and she is accepted as a postmodernist, gestural expressionist painter with an Americana flair.
Current projects include a permanent installation of a 6 x 12 foot triptych painting in Greenville, South Carolina’s newest mixed-use hub building called, ONE. This piece can be seen in the main lobby hanging beneath crimson, modern pendant lamp forms. In the Summer of 2013, Nancy curated an installation for a group of select artists in Western North Carolina. She has four large-scale pieces in the craft ales + kitchen restaurant called, EDISON, which opened July, 2013 at the historic OMNI Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina.Nancy originally moved to Asheville in 1997 after completing her Masters in Art Education from the University of New Mexico. At that time, she lived in an area along the French Broad River called, “Chicken Hill” in a small one-room house which sits above what is now known as Asheville’s “River Arts District” [RAD]. Nancy worked as an artist out of her house as there was no formal RAD association at that time. In addition to working as a visual artist, Nancy also worked as an Outreach Curator at the Asheville Art Museum. She left Asheville a few years later to live and travel throughout the United States and abroad. Finally, Nancy returned to Asheville again in June of 2011 with her husband and two children. Today she sits on the Board of Trustees at the Asheville Art Museum and is an active member of the River Arts District Association.
Nancy’s paintings are intricate in form and filled with layers of color and perspective. Her paintings are most often created with a range of matte acrylic hues, various hand-made papers and finished with touches of oil colors. You can sometimes witness her sand or wipe down layers to reveal under-layers and build up other sections creating texture and depth; a process that may go on for weeks or end in one day. Often times, Nancy will incorporate the wheel image throughout her work. From Nancy’s perspective, the cyclical nature of the wheel represents the continuous flow of things in life.
Nancy’s influences are garnered mainly from her own desire to create rather than from outside influences. However, she hints at inspirations from the works of Jasper Johns [and his paintings of the American flag], the late period of Mark Rothko’s “multiforms”, the architectural style of Santiago Calatrava and Georgia O’ Keeffe’s macro views of nature. Nancy’s creativity emerges throughout her work in a way in which normal, everyday objects are often painted with extreme and exaggerated perspective. Today, Nancy’s work is appreciated and widely collected throughout the United States and abroad and she is accepted as a postmodernist, gestural expressionist painter with an Americana flair.
Current projects include a permanent installation of a 6 x 12 foot triptych painting in Greenville, South Carolina’s newest mixed-use hub building called, ONE. This piece can be seen in the main lobby hanging beneath crimson, modern pendant lamp forms. In the Summer of 2013, Nancy curated an installation for a group of select artists in Western North Carolina. She has four large-scale pieces in the craft ales + kitchen restaurant called, EDISON, which opened July, 2013 at the historic OMNI Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina.