NANCY LEWIS-SHELL

Dark Matter explores what is really going on in the dark matter of the universe. The dark matter makes up 90 percent of the universe and the lighted matter the things we can see with our eyes makes only make up a small fraction of what’s out there the visible stars and planets. What is happening inside of that dark matter? The artist imaged it; is inhabited creator goddess force. The artist image of is a goddess is an image of all women - the feminine energy, power hidden from view. The goddess of the Dark Matter is the one who creates the thoughts to be manifested in the light and physical world so we can see them. The Dark Matter goddess is holding a baby inside of an orb. This baby is to give birth to new ideas, new inventions, new relationships, and of course, is new life. She represents the season of spring. The water pouring from the orb and through her hand is the amniotic fluid from the birth of this child that originated in the primordial waters from which all life is formed by the Creator.

Le Jardin de L'amour de ma Granmere is a picture of my grandmother Nannie Lu Louis She was born in the late 1800’s in the post civil war segregated south. Nannie Lu dressed in black dresses with lace collars. She had such a face that she could be anyone’s grandmother. Grandma kept a wonderful exotic garden in her city backyard where she grew vegetables and flowers. I painted her in her garden. Being with her was like being from another time and place. But her past was so frightful she rarely spoke of it. I learned about it one day because I was studying my French lesson.

“Granny,” I asked, “Why do you keep repeating what I am saying?” I was annoyed.

“Because you keep asking me how am I doing and I told you I am okay.” Then the story came out how she was the biracial daughter of the plantation owner and her mother. The plantation owner’s wife hated her and would beat her if she did not speak French in the house to keep the pretense that she was merely a ladies’ maid and not his daughter. My grandmother had a second grade education but she could speak fluent French. Here I was in high school stumbling over the language that she could have taught me.

My grandmother was not bitter about her past. She was a very spiritual lady. She taught me about what Philadelphia looked like in 1916 before the influenza epidemic broke out. She was a female minister when female ministers were not respected. She taught me that Love never fails you. I always felt her love and care by the wonderful food she prepared with her magic apron from her garden. She was a saint to me. This picture hung at the Barnes Foundation and was a finalist in the let’s Connect Contest.

Nancy Lewis-Shell works across mediums drawing, painting, quilting and photography. She wants to capture the essence of things, their inner soul and light. While technical accuracy is important to the artist, the capturing of that light in the soul, spirit of a thing is the most important / more important than the execution. Her painting style has been evolving to include accuracy as well as well as embedding multi-media objects. Presently, she is exploring the theme luminosity in the painting of urban portraiture. Like the illuminated pages in biblical texts. Nancy is interested in the themes of women, history, science, myths and legends and the stories of the under-served and unheard. Her painting style is a hybrid of impressionism and realism.