Art NunsNancy Edell · 1989

Identification of Art Nuns by Nancy Edell

In this work, titled Art Nuns, we encounter a piece created by Nancy Edell in 1989. The artist, who was born in 1942 in Omaha, United States of America, developed a practice that would eventually bridge the gap between traditional craft and contemporary fine art. This specific work emerged during a period when Edell was establishing her presence within the Canadian art landscape, having moved to Nova Scotia in 1980.

The piece reflects a significant chapter in Edell's career. Before her passing on June 9, 2005, she became deeply associated with the exploration of women's experiences through various media. Art Nuns belongs to a body of work that often utilized narrative and subversive wit to examine the intersections of religion, femininity, and the creative impulse. It is a quiet but firm statement from an artist who spent much of her later life teaching at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

The Composition and Visual Elements

The scene unfolds within a quiet village setting, structured around a religious narrative. Three women occupy the space, their presence defining the central action. One woman is positioned kneeling on the ground, while a second woman stands directly beside her, creating a sense of immediate connection. A third woman is situated further away, providing a sense of depth to the grouping. This arrangement directs the eye through the domestic landscape, where a dining table and a chair are placed near the center of the composition.

Life enters the scene through several animal figures that inhabit the periphery and the center. A dog is situated near the middle of the work, while a cat rests on the right side. In the background, two birds are visible, one positioned above the kneeling woman and another toward the top left corner. These elements, combined with the presence of the furniture, ground the spiritual subject matter in a tangible, lived-in environment.

The Artist and Her Artistic Practice

Nancy Edell was an American-Canadian artist whose practice underwent a significant evolution after she settled in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia in 1980. While her earlier explorations included animated film, woodcut, and monotypes, she became most recognized for her textile works during the 1980s and 1990s. Her approach was deeply rooted in feminism, frequently drawing inspiration from the intersections of religion, politics, and the logic of dreams.

A defining aspect of her career was her engagement with rug hooking. By integrating this local folk tradition into her practice, she pushed the boundaries between art and craft. This method allowed her to explore the nuances of women's experience through a medium often relegated to the domestic sphere. In the Art Nuns series, she uses these themes to depict a community of women entirely devoted to the act of artistic creation.

Her work often utilized a dense, fluid sensibility to navigate complex narratives. This was achieved through a variety of media, including:

• Rug hooking and found wool cloth
• Mixed media on plywood
• Printmaking and collage on vellum

Related Works by Nancy Edell

To understand the breadth of Edell's practice, one might look back to her early experimentation with moving images. Her first film, Black Pudding (1969), introduced a surrealist sensibility through its depiction of a giant vagina belching out creatures. This early interest in the surreal and the provocative established a foundation for the subversive wit that would define her later, more tactile explorations.

As her practice evolved, she moved toward the physical weight of mixed media and textiles. In 1989, she produced Bear in Point Pleasant, a unique print that utilizes charcoal, Conté crayon, and colored pencil alongside collage on vellum paper. This layering of materials continues in her later works, such as Operating (Chirurgie) (1994), which relies on the textures of found wool cloth and burlap. These pieces demonstrate her ability to bridge the gap between fine art and domestic craft.

Her later years saw a sophisticated integration of these diverse methods. In Syncoryne mirabilis (2004), she combined mixed media on plywood with the traditional technique of rug-hooking. This work reflects her lifelong commitment to pushing the boundaries of what constitutes art through the use of unconventional, often domestic, materials.

Reception and Influence on Other Artists

Nancy Edell’s presence in the Canadian art landscape was felt deeply through her long tenure at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where she taught from 1982 to 2002. Her practice, which navigated the intersections of surrealism and abstract expressionism, left a distinct mark on the generations of artists passing through the institution. By bringing traditional domestic crafts into the realm of contemporary art, she encouraged a shift in how material and gendered labor were perceived in fine art.

This pedagogical influence is visible in the work of several artists who followed her lead. Her legacy is reflected in the practice of Colleen Wolstenholme, as well as in the installation work of Laura Vickerson. The sculptural approaches of Sarah Maloney and Amanda Schoppel also carry the weight of her influence, particularly in how they engage with materiality and form. Her ability to bridge the gap between the tactile nature of textile work and the conceptual depth of fine art provided a framework for these practitioners to explore their own narratives.