Brisco’s new exhibit features new directions
“Immersed,” the new Nicole Brisco art exhibit, sees this Texarkana artist explore new directions with her work.
Opening Tuesday at Texas A&M University-Texarkana’s John F. Moss Library with a 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. reception and running through Aug. 31, the exhibit includes roughly 100 works, making it Brisco’s biggest show, said the artist, and her first large Texarkana show in a few years.
Most of the work here from Brisco, a Pleasant Grove High School art teacher, consists of paintings. Much of the work she started last year, but she finished most of it in 2018.
How’s it a new direction? “Probably color, a lot more color, probably, in this,” Brisco. And she took a fresh approach to technical aspects of the materials, moving from a mode where she was often draw-
ing and using mixed media to a “more a purist point of view” that has a more abstract, conceptual look to it.
Often when an artist is working on a new body of work, they may have this new art for them not come to fruition until later, Brisco observes.
But she was inspired to make a change.
“Like most artists, you’re either at a point in your art in which you feel like you’ve hit a utopian point, a point of awe, or you’re completely and utterly frustrated with yourself. You do tend to force yourself,” Brisco said.
Artists can hit a point of aggravation and then force themselves out of it. Artists get comfortable but then get bored, being naturally creative. Sometimes they start running in the opposite direction and then rein it back in.
This new direction for Brisco, however, inspired a lot of work. For her, it’s fertile territory. “It’s the biggest show I’ve ever had,” she said. There’s little mixed media, which she often focused on earlier in her work.
“I can almost solve any problem with materials,” Brisco says. “As an art teacher, that’s my job is to solve problems with materials. I’m like a doctor.” But she worked differently for “Immersed.”
Aesthetically, much of her artwork is based on things unseen, on faith, the artist explained. She also observes cycles and forward motion.
“Everything based in faith is a forward-moving motion,” Brisco said about her artistic themes. Nature, death, the repetitive seasons of life—they’re also forward moving. This sense of motion also brings forth beauty, she believes.
“I really like the idea of trying to mark those or notate those, or see time in some literal way,” Brisco said. She’d venture to guess there are a million hand marks in these art pieces in the exhibit.
Time and moving forward though the seasons can turn rock into something beautiful, or they create something like the Grand Canyon, she says. It’s a process that fascinates her as an artist.
Associated with this, she talks about how in the technical aspects of making art she became fascinated by letting go and allowing it to unfold in front of her without pushing things this way or that way.
“The concept of fluidity is kind of important to me,” she said.
To see where the new directions Brisco’s art explorations take her, check out the exhibit “Immersed” starting Tuesday at A&MTexarkana.
A portion of the proceeds raised through the exhibit will benefit mission projects, Brisco said. (The John F. Moss Library is located at 7101 University Ave. in Texarkana, Texas. More info: 903-223-3000.)