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I was born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania beside the
Susquehanna River on July 29, 1938. As a youth I played in
a beautiful region scarred by early indiscriminate logging
and strip mining. I lived on a farm with my parents and
grandparents called Orchard Hill located in Bald Eagle
Valley in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania. My earliest
recollection and puzzlement as a child was not being
allowed to go near or swim in the shallow gentle water of
the wide River that so magnificently defined the area.
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" Medicine Cat "Billie Joshie"
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"The water is unsafe" my mother said. "It is
because the banks of the river are leaking raw
sewage from the town and the closed coal
mines upstream are flooded and leaching acids
into the river" I was warned about pollution
undetectable to the eye and descriptions of
microscopic toxins were a strange wonderment
to me as a small child. I peered into a barren
watery landscape, too perfectly crystal clear
looking for signs of life, water plants and
strider's, turtles, beetles, and snails. They were
non existent!
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In my back yard I looked for diminished quail, pheasant,
wood ducks, red fox, it was easier to find lichen, arrow
heads, fossilized shells, than the once abundant trailing
arbutus, and ground orchids. I became gravely aware of
endangered plants and animals in the sparse felled woods,
abandoned fields, in the atrophic green algae blooms in
nearby Fishing Creek from fertilizer and farm runoff. I
learned at an early age the importance of healthy
BIOS-systems and to respect and protect the invisible and
the visible and much maligned bats, skunks, possums,
snakes and spiders.
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My grandparents on both sides of the family had farms with
live stock, and vegetable and flower gardens. My mother
was a zoologist with a passionate interest in birds and
American shells and the microscopic. My father was an
outdoors man and naturalist. My family spent a lot of time
outdoors observing and teaching. We explored flora and
fauna in the Pennsylvania woods, meadows, creeks and
river and in the early 50's the Florida Keys, islands,
hammocks and flats and reefs of the Atlantic Ocean and the
Gulf of Mexico. I attended 7th and 8th grade in a one room
school house in Marathon, Fl.
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I loved my principle and teacher Mr. Guthrie. He focused
lessons on the surrounding natural world. He took us on
field trips to Miami to visit The Parrot Jungle, the Hass
Serpenterium, and the Monkey Jungle. I attended summer
school at Penn State University taking art history and
painting classes from famed art teacher Hobson Pitman on
loan each summer from the Philadelphia Academy of Fine
Arts.
I graduated from the School of Architecture and Design in
1961, with a B.S. in Design from the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, MI.
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I majored in painting at a time when abstract expressionism
was being taught and all my instructors were male. I
minored in ceramics.
After graduation I moved to in New York City where I lived
on the lower east side with fellow artists and sold my work
in several Greenwich Village Art Galleries.
Wildlife artist George L. Schelling and I opened an art
gallery in Clinton, N.J. In the late 60's.
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My paintings are of lessor known plants and animals and
communities of small organisms. I am interested in
reoccurring patterns in nature.
I won the National Academy of Design Purchase award in
late sixties for the Henry Ward Ranger Fund for 24 x 30
watercolor "Black Organic Form"
I moved to Key West, Florida in 1969 where I remain today I
opened an art gallery of Botanical and Zoological Paintings
in 1975 which continues to this day. I show antique and
contemporary environmental art.
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I have been a mentor to creative people for 35 years. By
sharing my lifestyle, my philosophy, my art, my home, my
guest cottage studio and garden with creative people,
visionary thinkers, and naturalists. I have sought to elevate
the role of artists in society especially environment artists
and activate humans to save what is left of the natural
world.
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I won the National Academy of Design Purchase award in
late sixties for the Henry Ward Ranger Fund for 24 x 30
watercolor "Black Organic Form"
I moved to Key West, Florida in 1969 where I remains today.
I opened an art gallery of Botanical and Zoological Paintings
in 1975 which continues to this day. I display antique and
contemporary environmental art.
`
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I am the Creator and Presently the President of Mana
Project 501(c)(3) Mana is a Polynesian word meaning
positive creative force. Mana's mission is to preserve my
environmental legacy a piece of Land Art known as Nancy
Forrester's Secret Garden for the benefit of the earth, the
arts, and the artist. To serve the community and visiting
public as a site dedicated to environmental ethics and
educational in order to create environmental activists.
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I currently live and work at my home/studio in Key West,
Florida. I am presently working on two books Beauty with
a Purpose, and Garden Games and Extinction Jokes based
on my performance and interaction with the public in
Nancy Forrester Secret Garden for a decade.
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