{"id":2339,"date":"2021-07-04T14:33:56","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T21:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/?p=2339"},"modified":"2026-08-30T22:14:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T05:14:26","slug":"nancy-good-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/nancy-good-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Nancy Good"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chic<\/span><\/div>
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This article was printed in<\/em>
\nChic Compass Magazine - Issue 8<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"Nancy<\/span><\/div><\/div>

Nancy Good with her new public art installation, \u201cHabitat Curtain\u201d at the Clark County Wetlands Park.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Good Vibrations: A Conversation with Artist Nancy Good<\/h1>\n

BY BRIAN G. THORNTON, IIDA<\/p>\n<\/div>

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GOOD, GOOD, GOOD, GOOD VIBRATIONS.<\/p>\n

There is no mistaking the iconic chorus Brian Wilson wrote in 1966 that became the classic Beach Boys rock song. The lyrics unfold like a miniature symphony about that colorful girl that gave him \u201cexcitations.\u201d As I sat with Las Vegas artist Nancy Good, I had that same vibration as I harmonized the Beach Boy\u2019s hit internally. Texas-born around the time this song was scripted, Good has been a Las Vegas resident since 2011. Since then, she has received grants and awards from The Nevada Arts Council Jackpot Grant that led to large-format photographic\/digital artworks on fabric for exhibition at the Winchester Cultural Center, Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake; this is a story about art. It could very well be about music. Oscillating somewhere between art and music is Nancy Good. But by all means, this is about the creative senses that emanate from this very special woman whose creativity touches all your senses at once. Let\u2019s explore.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"\u201cLayered<\/span><\/div><\/div>

\u201cLayered Blues\u201c - As a lifelong musician\/vocalist, Nancy has written and performed her share of the blues and she has naturally progressed to taking on a visual interpretation.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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I\u2019M PICKIN\u2019 UP GOOD VIBRATIONS<\/p>\n

I walked into Nancy Good\u2019s CORE CONTEMPORARY GALLERY near downtown, not far from our Arts District, not knowing what to expect. Although I cheated and listened to a 38-minute blog provided by Chic Compass magazine\u2019s Jamie Hosmer, there was still so much more to discover. Her voice on the blog was resonant and engaging when describing her art and travels to get to Las Vegas. When I say I\u2019m picking up Good vibrations, I speak in decibels, oscillations, and purposefully in musical and sound references. One of the excitations was learning about synesthesia. Although this term was new to me, its concept of feeling outside the body or internally depending on your perception was not lost. I heard Nancy speak of it.<\/p>\n

The word \u201csynesthesia\u201d is a Greek portmanteau: \u201csynth\u201d (together) and \u201cesthesia\u201d (perception). Synesthetes can often \u201csee\u201d music as colors when they hear it and \u201ctaste\u201d textures like \u201cround or \u201cpointy\u201d when they eat foods. It\u2019s known that some who have synesthesia possess a high level of interconnectedness between the parts of the brain that tied to a sensory stimulus. With her art, she responds, \u201cI was constantly trying to explain my sensitivity to vibrations (i.e., audible frequencies) and soon realized that I have a similar sensitivity to visual vibrations. I don\u2019t \u201csee\u201d colors, per se, but I do have deep emotional responses to color vibration (and sound vibration) and have developed a visual language around these responses. Research into a sensory stimulus to help me explain what I was experiencing led me to synesthesia, which then gave me a way to help others understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, that led to the usual - When did you first know? \u201cIt\u2019s like asking, \u201cWhich came first, the chicken or the egg?\u201d she said, \u201cThis extra awareness is inseparable from my creativity.\u201d Your extra special gift overarches several interests and talents in art and music. \u201c[I\u2019m] not sure whether it was conscious \u2018knowing,\u2019 but rather it was an awareness of when I felt whole. My wholeness began too early for me even to recall accurately. I often must rely upon my mother\u2019s memory to fill in the blanks with stories like: \u201cBeing pulled from the nursery to direct the church choir at age 2, or my first word being \u2018LIGHT.\u2019 I was always drawing, painting, writing stories for toys, pets, etc. I do have some recollection of beginning guitar and piano lessons at age 7 or 8. However, those recollections are laced with trauma related to a manic episode experienced by a family member when all possessions of our household (including my piano and guitar, clothing, toys, furniture, etc.) were lost. Music did eventually return through singing, learning to play flute, baritone horn. It was decades before I could successfully learn to play guitar due to this experience. I\u2019ve also found healing through forgiveness of this trauma and compassion for the hell my family member was going through prior to receiving a diagnosis of mental illness related to their own horrific childhood trauma.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"This<\/span><\/div><\/div>

This is a story about art. It could very well be about music. Oscillating somewhere between art and music is Nancy Good.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Nancy Good studied classical voice, creative writing, and art at Eureka College in Illinois and continues to grow her craft through extensive experimentation. Most people can barely do one task at a time - How did you focus on your music and art? \u201cI chalk that up to being fairly balanced in terms of left and right brain development.\u201d Good answer. Then I asked - Did your family support your interests? \u201cFor the most part. I do know my mother has been anxious about my non-traditional approach to life and was terrified when I lived out of my van playing music full-time on the road. I understand her desire for me to have stability related to income, but I tend to focus on that \u201cwholeness\u201d I referred to above.\u201d<\/p>\n

SHE\u2019S GIVING ME EXCITATIONS<\/p>\n

Whenever you encounter a spiritual soul or someone that plain inspires, you begin to wonder\u2026how they got here. You\u2019ve lived in many states before coming to Las Vegas: Montana, California, Tennessee, and Illinois - Explain how each place led you to Core Contemporary. \u201cThe circuitous path is one I tend to prefer \u2026 and is a path that helped develop all those tools that help me operate a gallery while also pursuing a full-time art career. I learned business acumen in Montana during employment as an office manager\/bookkeeper or administrative secretary. Legal assistant\/paralegal skills helped keep me afloat in Tennessee while focusing on being a better songwriter. Being a musician in Montana, leading a band and its promotion helped me learn how to effectively market myself through press releases, media packets, etc. My English courses in college continue to support how I communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nancy, you have traveled to far reaches like Australia, Africa, Vietnam; your childhood residency in Japan - So, did these changes influence your style? \u201cI simply love the world. And remain endlessly fascinated with its people and cultures. Research into my DNA has revealed the ancestry I share with people from Africa, Middle East, Switzerland, France, Scandinavia, Italy, England, Ireland, and more. I often feel as though DNA memory communicates through my creative endeavors, and I welcome this as a type of collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"\u201cHow<\/span><\/div><\/div>

\u201cHow \u2018Bout Those Blues\u201d by Nancy Good<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"\u201cHow<\/span><\/div><\/div>
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Now, about your art and this great gallery space. Ms. Good was good about describing the space and how it came to be. I visited on a midweek mid-day opening hour and had the place to myself. Was it spiritual? Absolutely, and there was a conspicuous pew that I sat upon in lieu of the typical gallery bench to contemplate. After formal introductions, she went back to painting as I did my solitary tour. After all, this is a working art studio inside a gallery space. CORE CONTEMPORARY GALLERY is a second-floor sky-lit open plan as configured that day. Art is presented around the walls and in the center of the area. We right-brained people want to start alphanumerically and circulate counterclockwise to end up near her studio. The idea that people rely predominantly on either a rational, logical, \u201cleft-brained\u201d cognitive style or a more creative, abstract, \u201cright-brained\u201d style is one of the more prevalent neuromyths, believed by approximately 80 percent of educators around the world.(1)<\/p>\n

Nancy, is this your creative dream venue? \u201cIt is \u2018A\u2019 dream venue at present. I have hopes for expansion both in terms of physical space and programming. I hadn\u2019t been looking. One could say the space came looking for me as it was never a goal to have a gallery. I especially didn\u2019t want to have the \u201cNancy Good Gallery.\u201d But I did see that Las Vegas desperately needed more quality exhibition space that supported working contemporary artists. My friend, Ron McMenemy, who owns New Orleans Square, kept \u201cnudging\u201d me about the space. And once we were able to work out feasibility, it was a natural progression to commit to a lease.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"Nancy<\/span><\/div><\/div>

Nancy Good with her public mural, \u201cLOVE Grows Here!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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I wondered if the gallery spoke to her or ignited her synesthesia. \u201cYes, the space speaks volumes. But it definitely had different \u201cvibrations\u201d when I first moved in. Once I was able to imbibe the space with honorable intentions, sacred creativity, and prayer, it became a place of sanctuary that people feel when they enter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Las Vegas has a burgeoning and definitive arts district - When did you know this space would work for you here and why? \u201cThough Vegas has a designated arts district, I\u2019ve watched it evolve through the years to be less supportive of creative spaces (unless you have the cash) and more about food and beverage. I simply couldn\u2019t afford the square footage lease rates in the arts district, especially for the square footage I have now. Plus, the benefit of having 1,000+ free parking spaces available, an elevator to my second-floor location, the support of my neighboring tenants and property owners dedicated to creating community all contribute to the \u2018rightness\u2019 of the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many other artists were displayed on my visit, which led to - What other collections have you produced here? \u201cI love that I can definitively say the gallery has provided opportunities for close to 300 artists over the three years in this space and has engaged with several thousand community members. Exhibitions related to free speech, body image, gender equity, racial equality, and shows allow artists to take chances and grow, and juried shows that support artist development. Hopefully, [there will be] more of the same and additional non-profit programming geared at mentorship and artist development. I mostly work in silence. Silence allows me to fully experience the vibrations of the space around and in front of me (such as the canvas).\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"\u201cVoices<\/span><\/div><\/div>

\u201cVoices of the Ancients\u201c by Nancy Good<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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I would be remiss if I overlooked the influence of the pandemic. You, like so many others, were even more isolated. How did those challenges influence your creative vibrations? \u201cIsolation was something I \u2018collaborated\u2019 with in terms of creativity. For a solid nine weeks, I worked in my tiny home studio, necessitating smaller canvases. Though the space was smaller, the intensity of the vibrations remained as strong as ever, meaning I never felt true constraint.\u201d<\/p>\n

If money were no object, what changes would you make for the future of Core Contemporary? \u201cFirst, I\u2019d actually take a salary. Second, I\u2019d hire an assistant, which would allow me to focus more on both my studio work and program development.\u201d<\/p>\n

REVERBERATION<\/p>\n

Good is uniquely attuned to large format murals among her repertoires. \u201cYes. There are very few creative tools I shy away from, and likely more I will learn through the end of my life. I am endlessly fascinated by human expression and how we find ways to \u201csay\u201d what we feel, observe, question. Various mediums allow me to express different concepts. Photography helps me share what my eyes see and how they see something different from another. Mural paintings allow me to create work that can fill the viewer\u2019s field of vision in a way that becomes immersive and, in fact, much of my mural work is interactive in that viewers soon learn they must change perspective to see all that is within the painting. I also love creating what I call \u201cA2D\u201d work, i.e., \u2018analog\u2019 to \u2018digital,\u2019 whereby I take one of my paintings (analog) and transform it into digital 3-D landscapes, often animated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Future exhibitions - What does the next wave look like? \u201cI\u2019m planning more performance art, musical concerts, vintage avant-garde movie screenings, exhibitions as a tool for advocacy, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creatives appreciate works of others \u2013 So, whose art do you like, follow, or collect? \u201cI collect almost any art that makes me \u201cfeel\u201d something viscerally. One of my favorites is my friend (I call her sister), Kim Johnson. I also have a deep appreciation for female artists who are tackling the subject of gender divides through subtlety, humor, and compassion \u2013 Nevada artists such as Sapira Cheuk, Clarice Tara Cuda, Jung Min, Stormi Holt, Michelle Graves, Omayra Amador, Kristine Shomaker, and others outside of Las Vegas, such as Suzanna Scott, Judy Chicago, Ashley Longshore, Cindy Sherman, Sally Hewett, and more. I see it (CORE CONTEMPORARY) as an incubator for a stronger arts community.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"\u201cDissection<\/span><\/div><\/div>

\u201cHow \u2018Bout Those Blues\u201d by Nancy Good<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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ECHOES<\/p>\n

Thoughts of reflections and repetitions of sound waves come to mind as we are anticipating her next echo or brush strokes. What a joy it was for me to meet and experience Nancy Good, an incredibly creative and multi-talented artist with an incredibly diverse background! \u201cGood Vibrations\u201d is the last No. 1 song Brian Wilson wrote. That classic went on to earn platinum status. The recurring cello backbeat and ethereal tones of the song\u2019s theremin played out in my head. As I contemplate what\u2019s next for Nancy Good, certainly her studio work and the gallery space will evolve like a musical composition. There definitely will be more compositions to follow. Call and response, a natural rhythm, and yet, the beat goes on.<\/p>\n

(1) Exploring The Left Brain\/Right Brain Myth By Melina Uncaphe. Deans For Impact\/BLOG, September 9, 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n

CORE CONTEMPORARY<\/strong>
\n900 E. Liberace Avenue, Suite B111
\nLas Vegas, NV 89109
\n702-805-1166<\/p>\n

www.corecontemporary.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Oscillating somewhere between art and music is Nancy Good. But by all means, this is about the creative senses that emanate from this very special woman whose creativity touches all your senses at once. Let\u2019s explore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4522,3378],"tags":[1026,3423,3183,3009,1675,2832],"class_list":["post-2339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-issue-8","tag-art","tag-blues","tag-brian-g-thornton","tag-music","tag-nancy-good","tag-painting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10967,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339\/revisions\/10967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}