The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
Jan Nickum
Cincinnati Ohio United StatesHome Ohio United States Website: https://jannickum.com/
Artist Statement
My current paintings are based on animal life, primarily birds. As an artist, I’m intrigued by the immense range of their patterns, shapes and colors. Unlike humans, birds spend most of their lives in the air. I think of them as messengers between the common and the ethereal—liaisons between the earth and sky. Besides their physical beauty, I strive to convey their larger-than-life qualities: vitality, grace, curiosity, fierceness and intelligence.
The textured backgrounds of my work reflect the animals’ environments, memories and dispositions. I sometimes use pages from books or paper ephemera to reinforce the theme of birds as messengers.
In experimenting with the size of my paintings, I discovered that they have a different visual impact when on a monumental scale. No longer just a finely detailed decorative object, the bird’s heroic size visually confronts and arrests the viewer, requiring time to observe and process.
