Nicole Moan

Nicole Moan has 25+ years’ experience creating art, including wearable ceramic corsets, custom tile, 3-dimensional wall sculptures incorporating mixed media, innovative up-cycled display, and applications. She is a specialist in wearable art in the form of ceramics and fabric. She used her education in mechanics and welding to generate a unique creation process for both her art and in the mentoring of young artists and contemporaries. Recently she has been collaborating with her daughter Aztrid in creating some of her fabric pieces to tie in with her wearable ceramic corsets.

N.G. We appreciate your participation! Before we begin, our audience is curious to learn more about you. Could you please share your “backstory”, what inspired you to pursue this career, and where you stand now?

N.M. I’m a custom tile artist and I needed something to wear to an event, so the wearable ceramic corsets were born. The first corset was very rudimentary. That was 25 years ago. Since then, I have experimented with structure to make a design that is easy to wear, as well as elegant to look at. During that time, I also examined what I wanted my values and goals to be in the space I occupy as an artist. Especially since I am also a mother. What image do I want to portray to my daughters? The answer is, I’m an environmentally conscious artist, who repurposes materials and powers their studio with solar energy. I am an active, exhibiting artist, but I also participate in board and committee work, as well as teaching art to inner city and rural kids. I seek to show the world, through art, how we are all connected and have a unique beauty.

Nicole Moan

N.G. Describe the best (most meaningful) piece of art you’ve created and what was your inspiration

N.M. I would have to say Persephone wearable ceramic corset with matching stand. I was at a dark time in my life and had to pull myself out of the hole, sweep off my knees and realize I’m the only person that can get me out of situations that leave me feeling empty and sad. The flowers represent the people who surround and help to find beauty in the world around. If you surround yourself with people always trying to dig the dirt out from underneath you, you never grow. Finding people who want to grow with you and share the light around help keep the darkness at bay even though they grey tries to overtake you as people continue to undermine.

N.G. In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by emerging artists?

N.M.The biggest challenge as an emerging artist is realizing you don’t get to just be an artist. Art is where it all starts but you must learn how to be a promoter. Make people believe that what you make is worth paying attention to and buying. On top of that, you must run a business. Keep track of inventory, know where you have things for sale or where you have it stored. Add to that, if you have a family, your family needs you as well. You must balance out the needs of others in your life. So, you’re a caretaker too. Then there are the slow times when sales aren’t coming. You have to hustle harder or find side gigs to make it through. With art, there is always cycles. Weathering the storms will try you in every way imaginable. You have to truly love making art to live this life.

N.G. How DFW Forward Program can help your business?

N.M. I believe DFW Forward Platform will help introduce my art to communities beyond what I have been able to reach before. A community of people that want to find something elegant, yet, currently unknown and likely, unimagined by them. It also would introduce me to other creative minds. Networking with other creatives helps stimulate ideas for ways to grow business and promotions, as well as finding ways to collaborate and grow as artists. I love being pushed and inspired as well as pushing and inspiring others. DFW Platform will also push me to think about how I can accelerate my designs a step further. Every show I do, I try to find some way to bring more than the last. Whether it is in design, colors, or new techniques, I always try to bring a little more “Wow!” to the stage. I want to show the world that ceramics can create more than just pottery. And that people in ceramic, bring a whole new life to this amazing medium.

N.G. How do you define success as a visual artist?

N.M. I would have to say that defining success as a visual artist is hard. There are so many facets to being an artist. I think it could be being in a comfortable enough place that I can hire someone to help with promotion or a manager to help me reach broader audiences. My designs do confuse a lot of people. The art world says I am Fashion and I must fight to find a place there and often the Fashion world thinks I am art and I have to fight to find my place there as well. Success for me might be broadening people’s horizons to the idea that art and fashion can and should and can be in one place and exist in a way that betters the other. If I could make the world more accepting of things that don’t fit in a neat little box, I think that could be it.