The Coleman Center for the Arts and Culture
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Jeff Nilan, Transcendence
In May of 2006 the Coleman Center welcomed Jeff Nilan as a resident artist. NIlan came to York to investigate his own artistic motivation, and over the coarse of several weeks he also lead a series of community workshops teaching the historic photographic process cyanotype. This process uses natural sunlight and water to make blue-ish photographic images.
Nilan’s own work depicts outbuildings and various small structures found on his relative’s farms in Cass County, Iowa. The particular process that he will be teaching while in residence at the Coleman Center begins by making gravestone style rubbings with crayons and paper that are used as a photographic negative. These negatives are then used to print a life size “fingerprint” reproduction of a building facade.
Workshop participants began by making the gravestone style rubbings of parts of building and object surfaces of their own choosing, and then learned how to make the cyanotype images, which are printed and developed with natural sunlight and water. In phase two of the project, participants met for the cyanotype printing demonstration and received instruction on printing their own images.
While working in York Nilan made a piece of art from local signage that will be donated to the Coleman Center upon completion, and also continued work on in-progress pieces of his own. Inspired by the photographs of William Christenberry and Walker Evans, Nilan was also influenced by the now famous famous Gees Bend quilters, and remarked on the palette of the South that seemed present in York from the bright sky to blocky colored train cars that whiz by the Coleman Center on a daily basis.
Nilan's work, which reflects the identity of the rural landscape, was on display at the Coleman Center from June 16 to July 29th, 2006, and displayed several pieces that were completed during his residency at the Coleman Center.
Nilan received his MFA from Indiana University, where he has taught as Visiting Assistant Professor for the past six years. His photographs and artists’ books have been shown throughout the United States and he has received numerous grants and awards for his work, including Indiana Art Commission and Nexus Press in Atlanta.
For more information please contact the Coleman Center, (205) 392-2005, or email info@colemanarts.org