Local Artist Nancy Luken has spent much of her career exploring the lines between reality and imagination. Whether taking common everyday items and altering them to create a new object seen in a whole new perspective; or taking reality and incorporating whimsical imagery to remind people that the world is what we make of it. Her latest body of work best encapsulates that idea. Capturing photos of beautiful North East Ohio woods, Nancy uses a digital drawing board to embed her imagination into each photo. From there, she hand-transfers the printed image to a block of aspen wood through a self-refined transfer technique.

In addition to her wood prints,Nancy has spent much of her life exploring all kinds of mediums and techniques. She graduated from The College of Wooster in 2008 with a major in sculptural ceramics. Nancy continues to create sculptures out of any and all mediums. She currently enjoys working with leather, yarn, and wood; creating a variety of different items such as unique lighting from recycled household items, small furniture on occasion and 3-dimensional wall art. She loves a good challenge, and is always exploring new methods and new ideas.

Fun facts:

1. Nancy also helps manage the Brimfield Bread Oven (near Kent).

2. She worked in theater for roughly 13 years. She spent time working in all departments but found a passion for set design and prop fabrication.

3. When Nancy dives into learning a new technique, she goes all out. And instead of buying the specific equipment required she often tries to fabricate her own.

4. Nancy has a home studio and a modular wood shop that she built from scratch over the past 3 years. Every summer she tries to upgrade her workspace to make it more streamlined.

5. She’s a huge science fiction nerd!