Nancy Rourke
Artist’s Statement
"My eyes are my 'ears' and my hands are my 'communicator.'
I paint from what I see."
Biography
| My name is Nancy Rourke. I am a full-time artist living in Loveland, Colorado. I was born deaf in San Diego, California without knowing until I was six years old. I started painting at age seven. I grew up doing paintings from rocks to canvases until I became more involved in the art world. I studied art at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. I received a master’s degree in graphic design and painting. I have been in the corporate world for the past sixteen years as a graphic designer for Xerox and IBM. I was a palette designer for classic black and white films featuring Casablanca, King Kong and other films for 20th Century Fox in California. I was a graphic designer at Microsoft Corporation until in 1994 I was laid off. I then went back to becoming a full time painter in 1995. In 2002, I was a recipient to be honoured for the Edmund Lyon Memorial Lectureship Award at Rochester Institute of Technology, discussing my being a deaf artist. In February 2009, I was chosen to be one of the seven featured artists for the RIT Imagine Innovation & Creativity Festival to design 'Gluttony' for Seven Deadly Sins. In October 2009, I was chosen to be the featured artist for the 35th Annual Wells Fargo Ski Cup with the National Sports Center for the Disabled and Wells Fargo. It will be exhibited at the Winter Park Ski Resort in Colorado in 2010. I am exhibiting paintings across the country and in the galleries at the Denver’s most popular Santa Fe Art District. I am currently working on Deafhood doing a series of paintings that focus on deaf culture, deafness, deaf history and audism. |
Curriculum Vitae 1978-2010
Awards and Honors
2010 Wells Fargo Ski Cup, Ski Up High poster print autograph, Winter Park, Colorado
2009 Panel discussion/Hands-on at Innovation & Creativity at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
2008 Heartland Arts Festival Southeast Nebraska Regional Program for the Deaf Students, Lincoln, Nebraska
2006 Juried Sweet-Art Show, Loveland, Colorado merit
2005 Celebrate America, Detroit, Michigan second
2005 Juried Sweet-Art Show, Loveland, Colorado second
2002 Regional Juried Show, Loveland, Colorado second
2002 Edmund Lyon Memorial Lectureship, Rochester, New York
Solo Exhibitions
2009 Featured Artist, D-PAN, Deaf Professional Artists Network online gallery
2009 SOLO of Nancy Rourke's Deaf History and Deaf Culture at Colorado Association of the Deaf, Loveland, CO
2009 SOLO of Nancy Rourke's Joie de Vivre 2 at Alliance Franchaise Denver in the Santa Fe Arts District, Denver
2008 SOLO of Nancy Rourke's Joie de Vivre at Access Gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District, Denver, CO
2007 SOLO of Nancy Rourke's work at Kalediscope Gallery #113 in Bassett, Nebraska
2007 Featured Artist, Studio 6 Coffeehouse at Nine10 Arts, in the Santa Fe Arts District, Denver, CO
2007 Artist of the Month, Barnes & Noble Bookstore, Loveland, Colorado
2006 Featured Artist, VSA arts Access Gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District, Denver, CO
2005 Featured Artist, VSA arts Access Gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District, Denver, CO
2004 Featured Artist, Lincoln Gallery, Loveland, Colorado
2004 Art Stroll, Loveland Museum and Gallery, Loveland, Colorado
2002 Honored Lecturer Exhibition, Dyer Arts Center, Rochester, New York
1985 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York
Selected Group Exhibitions
2009 De'VIA Deaf Artists Show, National Center on Deafness, California State University of Northridge, Northridge, California
2007 June Juried Show, Lincoln Gallery, Loveland, Colorado
2007 99 Pieces of Art, VSA arts Access Gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District, CO
2007 Art Students League Gallery, Denver, Colorado
2006, 2007 Two Deaf Artists Show, The Children's Hospital Gallery, Denver, Colorado
2005 Celebrate America Deaf Art, Holley Ear Institute, Detroit, Michigan
2005 Juried Sweet-Art Show, Lincoln Gallery, Loveland, Colorado
2002 Regional Juried Show, Lincoln Gallery, Loveland, Colorado
1986 Twelve Deaf Artists, Ankrum Gallery, Beverly Hills, California
1978 Deaf American Artists, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Selected Bibliography
Incompatible, Clercscar, Online Publication of the Signing Community, February 2010.
Meet the Artists- Nancy Rourke, D-PAN Deaf Professional Artists Network November, 2009.
RIT/NTID Deaf Art/Deaf Artists, Deaf Artist in Painting., February 2005.
Deaf Artist Colorado in Art Registry, VSA, Washington, D.C., December 2005.
Deaf Woman Artist Receives Lyons Lectureship, Deaf Rochester News, April/May 2002.
Rourke Named NTID Distinguished Lecturer, RIT News & Events, Vol. 34, No. 13. March 14, 2002.
Signs of Success, Loveland Daily Herald-Reporter, Focus, Section B, March 4, 2002.
Lectures
2009 Panel discussion at Denver Art Museum on "Universal Design" for the Disabled, Denver, Colorado
2009 Panel discussion/Hands-on at Innovation & Creativity at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
2008 Heartland Arts Festival Southeast Nebraska Regional Program for the Deaf Students, Lincoln, Nebraska
2008 Panel discussion at Colorado symposium "Art Works- a Conversation about Careers in the Art", Denver, CO
2002 Edmund Lyon Memorial Lectureship Award at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York
Selected Commissions
2009 Wells Fargo Cup, 16inch by 20inch oil on canvas for the National Sports Center for the Disabled, Winter Park, Colorado
2007 City Park, Denver, 24inch by 30inch oil on canvas for Women's Vision Foundation, Denver, Colorado
Private Collections
National Sports Center for the Disabled, Denver, Colorado
The Children's Hospital, Denver, Colorado
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York
Saint John the Evangelist, Loveland, Colorado
American School for the Deaf, West Hartford, Connecticut
Memberships
Fine Art America, online Art Gallery
VSA arts, Access Gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District, Denver, Colorado
VSA arts, Artists Registry, Washington, D.C.
Artbreak, online Art Gallery
Last updated: February 3. 2010