NANCY YOUNG

A decade ago in 2015 I began making drawings up to 5 x12 feet because I wanted to be engulfed in the work, and I wanted the same for anyone viewing it. I drew on paper so I could easily roll and store the work. I chose to use permanent inks, later gouache and sometimes soft pastel. 

The resulting drawings often make viewers wonder, “What’s happening here?”  I ask myself the same question as I create visual puns and tangled narratives about our relationships with other creatures, each other, and our surroundings. The settings are generally Hawiian, but do not adhere to a realistic scale or perspective.

I strive for the emotional content lines can express and the immediacy of handdrawn permanent marks. Sometimes personal, sometimes political, my drawings are graphic illustrations which include mythic and cartoon characters, references to famous artwork, lots of trash, sometimes war, brutality, death, migration. I rely on humor and graphic abstraction to soften harsh realities in our pursuit of happiness.

POLYNESIAN PARALYSIS 2023 60X96 In the 1970’s my generation, tired of glass ceilings and washed out radical movements, or just for a sense of adventure, or for the surf… moved to Maui . We came to do good, to live more authentic lives. When we inevitably drifted into a stupor we called itPolynesian Paralysis. tourists come and go. The Hawaiian god, Kamapua’a looks on from the edge of the jungle. A bag lady I thought I would become is there with her walker and shopping cart.