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Surviving as an artist during Covid

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At the beginning of the pandemic I was in a bit of a state of shock as was everyone else. Suddenly, our beautiful W Gallery in Wayland, run by our non-profit Arts Wayland, was closed. As president of Arts Wayland I felt the loss that it was to the community, our many volunteers, and local artists. The vibrant live music events surrounded by local artists' work were stopped. It seemed impossible. Days dragged on and I threw myself into art-making using inspiration from art I loved to focus my mind. I had to keep it simple because my energy was low and my anxiety about the pandemic was ever present. Making art always leads to wanting to share that art with others. I decided to try something I had thought about for a long time. An online store that would allow me to place my art on products to sell. I create animal characters based on classic illustration. When I first created them I had an imaginary place where they lived, called Nellenby. Created from my first and middle names, Nanc
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Finding Nellenby again

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A while back I created a cast of characters and placed them in a fictitious place called Nellenby. I was completely immersed in this world for a long time. I put it aside for some years, then I came back to it. Now after quite a few years away I am back again. It's a bit of a mystery to me who these characters are but I do know they must be inspired by growing up in a large, wonderful messy family with a lot of quirky characters. I'll write more about that later. But, for now, I want to share the family of "Lena". Lena is a little lion who also is growing up in a large family. I started a story called "Lena's new school'. Her family wants her to go to a new school and she isn't happy about it. Here are some pictures from the story. I found the storyboard but cannot find the actual story with words. I just have all of my sketches.   Lena's family gathers around her as she prepares reluctantly to get ready for school. In the next scene, Lena growls
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Location: Wayland, MA, USA
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The Characters of Nellenby

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My animal characters are inspired by my life growing up in Boston in a large, extended family. My father's parents came over from the west coast of Ireland for work. They had six children and it multiplied from there. My mother's side was a blend of recent immigrants from Ireland and long ago immigrants from England in the 1600s. I also had the freedom from about age 14 to go into Boston myself and wander around exploring. Here are some of the characters that I created who live in the fictional world of Nellenby. Mr Frog's lesson is inspired by my time at Girls Latin School in Boston. We learned Latin and passed by Roman and Greek statues in the corridors. Wonderful school with creaky wooden floors and very good teachers. The lion character is based on my late father, Edward Boyle, who started in the Boston police, studied at night, and became an attorney in Boston who wore hats and smoked cigars. He had an office at 18 Tremont Street and I would stop by during my wandering
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Location: Wayland, MA, USA
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