For more information, contact:

Nancy Coe-Munsey
(No. B. Coe)
PO Box 27044
Albuquerque, NM 87106

505-265-9452

A stylized depiction of a nude female as viewed from behind. She is seated on a striped blanket on the floor in what appears to be a doorway. Her legs are tucked close to her body, her head is propped by her crooked arm resting on her knee. Disconnected body parts: two arms, a (sexaully ambiguous) head and neck, and a foot are simply rendered and overlayed with colors (green, yellow, red and black). These central components are framed by an alternating pattern of small black and neutral squares. This geometric abstract is split vertically into a light blue field on the left and a dark blue field on the right, where three five-pointed stars shoot off in the upper corner. In the center thin bands of reversed light and dark blue create an overlap between the two distinct sides. On each side a third shade of bright blue partially outlines corners of incomplete retangles canted at opposite angles. Within the outline on the left there are concentric circles of shades of red and yellow in an upper corner. The outline on the right has no upper corner but there is a slightly larger circle in the lower corner, with a leaf-like shape peeking from behind. In the central foreground, there is a large thin circle decorated with stripes, inside this a circular image, which almost appears to have facial features, sports unusual appendages: three little nobs on top, and three bird-like feet on the bottom. This symetrical geometric abstract features a light blue background with faintly discernible, unidentified symbols in a slightly darker blue. The same light blue forms a triangular shape with the base spanning the lower corners of the painting. The point of the triangle is hidden behind concentric circles of red, light blue, darker blue and yellow, which are in front of a narrow rectangular, light blue shape, streching vertically to the top of the painting and decorated with vertical stripes created by repetition of patterns comprised of dots, triangles and lines. Above the triangle at the base of the painting and following the sides of the circles and rectangle to the top are two black, wide angle brackets with feathered edges, creating the illusion of smoke.

No. B. Coe

In the foreground, is the dark silhouette of a pair of hands outstretched at the bottom of the painting. Floating above the fingertips are four circular figures with concentric designs suggesting flowers. In the background, red and blue vertical lines and stripes could represent garden rows.

“In my work, I attempt to first catch and hold the viewer's attention with color, then stimulate an awareness in thought or feeling. If this has been accomplished, then the work has succeeded. It's all about the inward journey and exploration…

“The colors used are an expression of self and experience: rhythm, chaos and order… it's a way of seeing and feeling that which is me and that which is around me… inside and outside merged.”

In this abstract, a half a yellow circle is sinks into a central area, oblong retangles and organic shapes in the background suggest the forms of a desert mesa landscape. There is a leaf-like motif in the foreground. The composition feels familiar, but remains open to interpretation. In this abstract two cascading splashes of color (yellow and green) suggest an explosive energy, while seemingly disparate elements: circles, squares, slashes of paint, scribblings and intersecting lines exemplify chaos, but within the chaos, there is some order. The circles march in a wavy queue, and squares form a path to a vanishing point.

Seven long rectangular shapes with light blue bodies, embellished patterns of dots and stripes in red, dark blue, black and yellow criss-cross each other in a random fashion, occupying the about two thirds of the painting's foreground in the center, right side and bottom. Slightly above and to the left of center is a large yellow orb.

“In the forty plus years I have been producing paintings and sculpture, the Spirit and experience have culminated into a hybrid cultural abstract that expresses both halves of me into a comfortable philosophical safety-zone in which to bring forth work… a birthing, if you will.

“Now, I easily float back and forth between the mixing of heritage and cultural boundaries. My work has finally become the bridge that Grandmother said was meant to be…”

“Everyone has a story. Life can be complicated with its twists and turns. For an artist, these twists and turns change the flavor of the work. The goal of the work is to express the facts of any given imagery while maintaining the integrity of the human‘s being. I think Manet said it best: The artist's greatest gift is to create reality not copy it.”

— No. B. Coe

The light blue background is adorned with darker blue glyphs, one suggesting the shape of a hand, one with a zigzag top and rounded bottom enclosing a circular object, one: a spiral, one: a cross, one: a circle with radiating curved lines, one: two concentric arcs and a final arc inside an arced dot pattern. There are also wavy, meandering white lines and dots that look a bit like a map. Against this background and positioned a little to the left and below the center are six concentric rectangles with three squares of decreasing size in each corner that create a picture frame effect around a medium blue field. Floating against this field are three small white circles in a horizontal line toward the upper left corner and large red circle slightly below and to the right of center.

No. B. Coe has a degree in commercial art from the Robert Morgan Technical Institute in Miami, Florida; studied sculpture at the North Carolina State University School of Design; stained glass with Raymond Stevens at the Carolina Studios in Raleigh, North Carolina and at the Fischer Stained Glass Studios in Houston, Texas.

Her work has been shown at Abilities, Inc of Florida, the North Carolina Council on the Status of Women, the N.C. Fine Arts Society Competition, the N.C. Museum of Art, the ASID Designer House Invitational (where she was awarded Best in Show), and at the Independent Living Resource Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her work is hanging in private and corporate collections in the U.S., Canada, Africa, England, the Netherlands, Israel and the Ukraine.

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The North Fourth Art Center is operated by VSA arts of New Mexico, a not-for-profit organization, affiliated with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the national VSA arts network.