Biography.
pronouns: she/her
Nicole Geary is an American artist hailing from the green, swampy lands of Florida, where she earned a BFA in printmaking from the University of Florida. She graduated with an MFA in printmaking from the University of South Dakota in 2013. She exhibits in juried print and sculpture shows, international residencies, and regularly participates in printmaking conferences. Geary is a full-time faculty at St. Philip’s College, where she co-founded a study-abroad to Florence that partners with Santa Reparata International School of Art. She also served as a Member-At-Large for Southern Graphics Council International from 2020-22. She was a resident at the Mojave National Preserve and Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Scotland. Geary has been awarded a grant from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio as well as ArtistLab at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. She lives and works in San Antonio, Texas.
Artist Statement.
My artwork is fed by my studies of geological methods and theories combined with my own personal histories. I work with concept of memory, and tie the emotional realm to the scientific. I look for ways in which the earth’s history reflects itself and its characteristics, like that of the human body, into layers and in fossils. These deep records tell us stories about ourselves and the connection that we share with our landscapes.
Through field work and deeper study of unconformities, weathering, diagenesis, and all sorts of natural processes that change the face of the earth and give it its unique character, I see the same thing happening to my own body. Bruises, scars, fat and lumps, bones breaking - I am as unique in this world as any stream bed that flowed in the Triassic that flows no more. There may be a record of that stream bed in the ripple marks of a sandstone somewhere, and there may be an x-ray of me somewhere, but what will become of us both is up to the eventual erosion of time. I find this both comforting and heartbreaking. Who will tell our stories? How long will they last?
CV available upon request.