About
Meet Nancy Jo Scarborough
In 1964 Santa brought me a Grumbacher paint box. Oil paint. Turpentine. Brushes and canvas. A world of possibilities laid out before me. The magic of that morning marked a turning point in my young life. The love of color, the desire to create, has remained my constant companion for over sixty years. I’ve tried my hand at many different media, and found that each offers a unique manner of self-expression. Currently, I am enjoying making digital art on my iPad as well as painting with acrylics. Whatever my hand and heart turn to, I find that the process of each creation, each material, continues to delight me as much at sixty-nine as it did when I was eight. I hope each piece I make is embued with a bit of that delight, and that it spills over from my heart to yours.
Passion: a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.
I’ve had two driving passions in my life. They are creative expression and animal welfare. As a child I used to feel things so deeply I thought I might burst if I didn’t let some of them out. Art gave me a way to let things out. Tangible materials to make intangible things visible. That is still true for me. Art is alchemy. It takes the breadth and depth of this bittersweet life and transmutes it. That is where my creations come from. They spill out from the overflow of my heart.
Animal welfare. Dogs and elephants, et al. Growing up with a zany wire fox terrier, Ginger, I was poised to be a lover of dogs who were full of joie de vivre. Lakeland terriers were companions for almost all of my adult life. However, learning about puppy mills caused me to pivot towards rescuing dogs. I’ve spent many years fostering, adopting, and transporting animals in need.
Passion has also pulled me to live in different physical places. My husband and I have set up house nine times, and, while costly physically and financially, we are grateful for how each place expanded our hearts and minds. From the Outer Banks of North Carolina to the center of Chicago, from coastlines to mountains, I have thrilled at the power of each place. There’s a wildness of the ocean reflected in the streets of the city, just as the serenity of the mountains is mirrored in the return to my birthplace in Raleigh - the grounding energy of earth and home.
I heard a phrase years ago that rings true. It said, in the context of one’s life, ‘Nothing is wasted’. All that I’ve experienced across my span of years goes into what I express creatively. Whether writing or painting, everything is a resource. I look forward to sharing some of these moments, these creations, with you"
