artist + speaker.

demystifying the creative process.

Nick is a natural-born teacher, who is motivated to demystify the creative process and aspires to demonstrate how it relates to mental health and our everyday well-being. The experience of creative mindfulness is what keeps bringing him back to his sketchpad/easel and what he is passionate about sharing with others. In the classroom with Nick, students and participants use drawing to engage their sense of vision and better connect with what they observe. 

Nick is regularly developing programs to share the lessons and insights he gains from his creative practice. In March 2022, he was invited to speak at TEDxGeorgetown. In his aptly titled presentation, “Paint and Prejudice,” Nick discussed how a landscape painter’s approach to mixing color can help us practice non-judgment and become aware of our own prejudice. While quarantining in France and England at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic he self-published the book of sight and insight — a collection of images of his artwork along with his techniques for fighting self-judgment in his creative process.

Nick at TEDxGeorgetown.

want to nurture the creativity of your team, organization, or student body?

…ask for Nick — practicing artist and educator.

topics and other insightful conversations:

+ Paint and Prejudice

What does a landscape painter's approach to mixing color and Martin Luther King Jr.’s statement of “judge not by the color of one’s skin, but the content of one’s character” share in common? They both require looking beneath the surface. In this talk, Nick draws from years of experience painting en plein air to demonstrate one way we might deliberately practice MLK’s call for non-judgment and become aware of our own prejudice.

20 minutes // in-person or online // option to include color mixing demo

+ What is “creative mindfulness”?

All human knowledge comes from the senses. Nick discusses how engaging our senses through regular creative practice can ground us in the present moment and connect us with our surroundings. By outlining different practices he’ll inspire audiences to take up an activity of their own, not only to relieve stress and anxiety, but to become more observant, sensitive, and self-aware.

10-15 minutes // in-person or online // option to pair with interactive workshop “Drawing for the Everyday Overthinker”

+ The Lost Collection: a story of the healing power of art during the Covid-19 pandemic.

For several weeks beginning in October 2020, Nick was confined to his apartment in France which had gone into a strict national lockdown to fight the coronavirus. Between the pandemic, the precarious U.S. election back home, and his own visa issues, Nick felt like a ship lost at sea with few options. To cope with the uncertainty of his predicament and the isolation of being quarantined alone, Nick relied on painting the view from his window every afternoon during sunset. Using images of artwork and videos he made during this time, Nick recounts a story about the power art has to provide relief during our most uncertain times.

20-25 minutes // in-person or online // includes Lost Collection video content

"…the senses are what connect us to the world and to the present moment, the only place where life is truly available." —NCV

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