Nancy Switzer

From Denver, Colorado, Nancy Switzer paints still lifes of simple, everyday objects such as milk cartons, water glasses, cans, and more. Her style has changed from highly representational to abstraction featuring her masterfully textural, heavy application of paint. An eye for complexity in simple subjects is key to Switzer’s work, saying of cans “A can is a simple shape.  It reflects everything around it, takes form and is defined by reflecting what it is not. The can is only visible because of what it reflects. Looking at a can for a time, one begins to see what is-not-there.”

As a child Switzer was encouraged by her mother, an amateur artist. The family was musical, and she and her siblings performed as a quintet and took music lessons in Houston, where they traveled from their home in Freeport. At age 15, she played violin with the Norfolk Symphony in Virginia, and in her 20s, played violin with the Oslo, Norway, Philharmonic.

She attended the North Carolina School of the Arts as a music student and later changed to art studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. She received her Bachelor's Degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and returned to art after finishing her formal education. She is inspired by the painting of Joaquin Sorolla as well as George Bellows.