3 Questions Digital Series

Pamela Nelson

An interview from Art in Embassies 3 Questions Digital Series with Pamela Nelson, who speaks about her creative process and artwork at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan.

Read more about the Artist

Full Transcript

1
00:00:23,460 –> 00:00:30,869
All of my work is uh primarily two dimensional,
even things that get made into public art

2
00:00:30,869 –> 00:00:36,899
or something starts as a drawing or a painting
and then gets translated, and this series

3
00:00:36,899 –> 00:00:42,970
of a paintings was based on a piece of music,
Faure’s Requiem that I was listening to a

4
00:00:42,970 –> 00:00:49,780
lot in my study and each movement had a different
feeling to it for me and it’s a actual requiem

5
00:00:49,780 –> 00:00:56,230
for the burial of the dead and my husband
had just died that past year so really I put

6
00:00:56,230 –> 00:01:01,270
a lot of heart into it.

7
00:01:01,270 –> 00:01:13,550
Pattern and repetition is kind of a movement
in art, it was in the 70s, but for me, I was

8
00:01:13,550 –> 00:01:20,759
influenced by my grandmother, she was my mentor
and she had a patterned carpet and she would

9
00:01:20,759 –> 00:01:28,000
let me use colored buttons, ah she had jars
of different buttons and I would make mosaics

10
00:01:28,000 –> 00:01:33,320
echoing the patterns of the carpet and I know
that had a huge imprint on me.

11
00:01:33,320 –> 00:01:40,880
I like organic geometric as opposed to drawn
with a ruler and really hard edged, because

12
00:01:40,880 –> 00:01:46,030
I think the patterns of our lives are similar
but every day they’re different.

13
00:01:46,030 –> 00:01:52,759
It really kind of follows the circle of life
and the circle is one of my favorite ways

14
00:01:52,759 –> 00:02:00,909
to repeat into a pattern.

15
00:02:00,909 –> 00:02:07,829
I don’t know if I characterize patterns as
peaceful but I think we relate to them.

16
00:02:07,829 –> 00:02:13,970
The ripples on a stream, the light patterns
coming down through the trees you know we

17
00:02:13,970 –> 00:02:19,410
see that all around us so it’s some way to
relate.

18
00:02:19,410 –> 00:02:24,400
I think the underlying feeling of the rhythm
of patterns is universal.

19
00:02:24,400 –> 00:02:30,090
I like the idea of loaning because I think
that way when someone is in these countries

20
00:02:30,090 –> 00:02:35,900
and in these embassies over and over no matter
who is in office, no matter who is the ambassador

21
00:02:35,900 –> 00:02:42,870
they can see the different American art each
time they go in and all of that connects us

22
00:02:42,870 –> 00:03:37,780
to each other so I think it’s uh it really
is valuable, I’m really glad they have the

23
00:03:37,780 –> 00:03:37,840
program.