NICOLE PATTEN
BACKSTORY
I’ve been drawing since my Mother put soap crayons in my bath as a tot. A natural ability that comes from my Father's architect genes. I enjoy drawing people the most.
I grew up in the beautiful Green Mountains of Stowe, Vermont. I attended Stowe High School where I had amazing teachers and the best small school experience (250 kids 9 - 12). This school nurtured and listened to kids like me who lived and breathed art. They experimented with block scheduling for Art and Science. This allowed us to have 90min. block classes of Art and Science Labs. I was an assistant teacher in Art I for AP Credit in my
senior year.
SUBJECTS STUDIED
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Art History
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Composition
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Color Theory
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Graphic Design
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Manual Photography
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Photography Lab
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Pottery
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Sculpture
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Silk Screening
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Linoleum Block Printing
I've been working in the print production & design for 20 years in the Lake Tahoe Area. I worked for Alpine Meadows Ski Resort for 13 years taking the Sign Shop from hand painting & cut vinyl to the modern large format high resolution prints. In those 13 years the resort was sold 3 times. Each expanding the Sign Shop umbrella to other resorts within the new company. Those resorts included Soda Springs & Boreal Resorts, Homewood Mountain Resort & The West Shore Cafe, Squaw Valley & The Village at Squaw. When the company was owned by JMA I worked under the guidance of wonderful designers from big city creative firms. Calvin Jung from Creative Mint in San Francisco taught me his "Bento Box" style. Clean, organized, modern. I then worked under the guidance of Concept Farm in New York City. They taught me to dream big with their imaginative "Mountain Heads" campaign. It focused more on imagery. A picture of what the mind wants instead of the usual verbiage.
I worked for four years for The Real Graphic Source in Truckee, Ca. I continued designing signs, print collateral, logos, vehicle wraps and other large format medias. I learned more about production and file setup, architectural plans, wholesale ordering for large print runs and business management. I also had the pleasure to work for a hot minute with the legendary Primo Angeli.
Buon Uomo.
Now I'm looking to balance my need to create fine art and creating mass market digital art. I'm focused on the greeting cards. I have also been expanding into the digital art with digital watercolors. It takes some adjusting and being smarter than the computer to get the desired effects. I like to consider myself a "Swiss Army" artist with many skills in one place. I hope to never stop learning new tricks.
