About the artist Nakisha Elsje VanderHoeven
BioNakisha is a multi media artist who has been making animal art since her earliest memory.
Born in California and growing up on a tree farm in rural New York State, her childhood was filled with art and animals. Dog was her first word and her teen years were spent riding her beloved horse, Fox. Her creative parents encouraged her first two passions, art and nature, which she continues to focus on today.
She attended college in New York's Finger Lakes region on a full scholarship, learning computer animation, sculpture, painting, and writing. She earned a BFA degree in Sculpture. After graduation she worked for a glass blower while creating graphic novels and elaborate ink drawings.
In 1993 she moved to Seattle where she learned web design and worked as the webmaster and artist liaison for a woodworking cooperative. She was the guitar player and song writer for the band Vertebrae. In 2019 she left Seattle to find a place with more sun.
Today she lives in the mountains in Southern California and continues to create art and sells her work to clients around the world.
Nakisha and Fox, 1981Artist's Statement
My work comes from a desire to make things. I have always been inspired to recreate what I see and convey what I feel through images.
I love experimenting with color, and am attracted to objects and beautiful things, especially suggestive and functional ones. I like art that speaks to me on many different levels, art that I am always seeing something new in, and especially, art that has a sense of humor.
