Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project

The Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project records and preserves the voices of women visual artists in Iowa reflecting on their lives and their artwork. In 1998, creator and director Jane Robinette began interviewing Iowa women artists about their experiences and art practices. The interviews cover family and personal history, education, development as an artist, artwork, creative process, influences, and more. The Daily Palette is pleased to present excerpts of the Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project's 2008 updates that Robinette collected from the Project artists who were interviewed nine or ten years ago. Visit the Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project's website.

NANCY L. PURINGTON
In the Dark F (Bix Beiderbecke Tribute), gouache on paper, 16" x 12", 2008

Nancy Lee Purington was born in 1947, in Davenport, Iowa. She grew up in Davenport and Princeton, Iowa; Delavan, Wisconsin; and Bettendorf, Iowa. She was the oldest of three children. She received her B.F.A. in Painting in 1973 from the Kansas City Art Institute after a year at Drake University. She studied textile design in Kansas City while obtaining her teaching certificate, and taught one year of art in the Kansas City school district. After moving to New York City and working as a textile artist for a year, she returned to Iowa for graduate school. She received her M.F.A. in Design in 1983 from the University of Iowa. She taught Textile Arts for several years in the University of Iowa Home Economics Department. She is now a full-time studio artist and part-time art and design consultant. She is married and has two sons and three grandchildren.

What motivates you to continue making art?
Observing patterns of infinite change on the Mississippi River's surface and simultaneously experiencing the horrific tug of an invisible current defines the birthplace for my motivation. At elementary school age, these experiences elicited the subjects of beginnings and endings within the context of change.

Continue excerpt at the Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project