Nancy Paul
BIO
Nancy Paul is a painter, drawer and occasional printmaker. Her recent solo shows in 2020 (Time/Lines, Art Noise Gallery, Kingston) and 2018 (Dualities/Mythologies, The Rebecca Gallery, Toronto) featured works on canvas, paper, wood and stone.
Originally from northwestern Ontario, Nancy moved to Toronto to study art (OCAD) then Kingston (Queen’s) where she worked in cancer research and earned her doctorate in literature. She lives in Lansdowne with her husband, Steve, and their cat, Zarco.
Artist Statement
Into White (I, II, III: Destruction, Extinction, Disintegration) is a response to the current wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East, to the accelerating rate of extinction of species, to the rising fear of people around the world for the future of the planet.
White is terror, white is peace; extreme heat and bitter cold. For me, white especially symbolizes absence, before the beginning and after the end, the initial void and the final emptiness. White is eternity, what always was and what will remain when time runs out. I see white as non-existence but not to be confused with death, as it is outside the circle of mortality within which all other colours are eventually absorbed into black. White is thus unknowable as it lies at one remove, not next or beside but one step away from life, after the chalk line has been erased.
Destruction: The action or process of causing so much damage to something that it no longer exists or cannot be repaired.
Extinction: The complete disappearance of a species from Earth.
Disintegration: The process of losing cohesion and unity; of coming to pieces, falling apart.
