A gallery of drawings and occasional writings by Nina West.

I earned a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree in Printmaking (etching, lithography, monoprints, and block printing) from Georgia State University. I also studied art at Tennessee State University in Nashville and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC. For many years I worked at a museum with collections from ancient Greece and Rome, the ancient Americas, the ancient Near East, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and ancient Egypt, sometimes drawing objects in the collections among other educational responsibilities. Other professional work included creating artwork for Yellow Page advertisements and some aspects of map-making for a civil engineering company. Out of this varied exposure to many kinds of art, I arrived at the conviction that all artwork is a vast vocabulary of visual expression from which I can draw, literally and figuratively. For the most part, I work intuitively, looking at many sources, to create images.

4 Comments on “About Nina West”

    1. Thank you, Peter. I’m glad you find “Nightfall” interesting. Right now, the “Occasional Writings” are just the short paragraphs you see here and there posted with some of the drawings. I may post some essays and/or may include things I’ve written and posted elsewhere at some point. For now, as I figure out what I’d like this website to look like ultimately I’ll post remarks about drawings and that may be all the “occasional writings” will be. I had felt a little resistant to trying to explain or analyze my art initially. My thought is that the language of drawing is very different from the written word. I know from studying art history that there is a tendency to describe and explain art, and there can be value in that, but sometimes I wonder if it takes away some of the experience a person may have while looking at art whether it’s mine or anyone else’s. However, I changed my mind and added notes with some of the drawings because a couple of people were asking if a drawing meant this or that. I think images can have many meanings, not just the ones they may have for me. So I added some explanations thinking it might be of interest to some people to know what I was thinking and how that led me to make a particular image.

  2. Hi Nina:

    Wanted to say hello , its been way too long. I really enjoyed the subjects that you have on this site , they look very professional.!! Its nice too see where others in the family are very talented. Just seeing Jean and speaking with you on the on phone has opened up opportunities too be able to meet others in the family that i have missed out on. Still don’t know where the disconnect was or who to blame hahah ?? Jean mentioned RED OAK, OKLAHOMA.
    I have 5 weeks vacation to take this year. Keep me in mind. !! I want to see everyone.!!

    Take Care and be safe !! Bruce

  3. Hello Bruce!

    Thanks for visiting my site! And I do appreciate your very kind words. I for sure do want to meet you in person (was delighted to talk with you by phone) and am so glad Jean was able to connect with you, so sorry I couldn’t be there. Jean and I will make it happen! And that’s a promise. I guess maybe you figured out that I gave my virtual museum/website the name that it has for our grandmother. 🙂

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