Nancy Carrigan's friends and relations know her individually as an
artist, poet, writer, arts presenter, editor, mother, grandmother,
sister, and wife. A polymath is someone of great learning. Nancy is
uncomfortable with the words "learning" and "intellectual" perhaps
because they emphasize head over heart. There should be a word "polyart"
to describe people like Nancy whose reach spans a range of arts.

Many think of Nancy Carrigan as an artist. They remember the interesting
*Choreographer's Dreams* series with the sci-fi characters, the
mysterious numbers, and even parts of a circus parade. That series
borrowed from her personal interest in dance. In its creation she became
a passable dancer, eventually developing the dance piece *Charmed
Quarks* and participating in John Cage's *Dip in the Lake* in Chicago.
There are the earlier multiple view figures reminiscent of Picasso. A
ceramic phase produced many figures as well as a very large gaggle of
geese for craft venues.

More recently Nancy has done a set of large *Women in Shakespeare*
paintings. Her wonderful Titania invites us to come and dance with fairy
grace. Others are more somber. What many people don't know is that this
series reflects an intensive investigation of Shakespeare's works
searching for memorable and significant phrases by women that have been
largely overlooked in the past. In some circles this would constitute
serious scholarship, another label Nancy is uncomfortable with. Nancy
sometimes says she never much liked school although she graduated out of
two fine universities, served on the staff of two, and has continued her
education with three years of special work at Carnegie-Mellon and many
semesters of studies at the College of DuPage.

Recently Nancy has worked on a series *Myths without Words* that brings
together her interests in poetry and fables. The idea is to make
illustrations that draw the viewers into creating their own myths.

Dürer was the backdrop to her extensive series on Adam and Eve. Her
study of Dürer may have started in Germany in 1967-68. More recently she
has visited the Fogg archives at Harvard and the museum at Dürer's home
in Nuremberg. It was there that she obtained the very fine copy of the
Dürer *Adam and Eve* print that is displayed in her home.

The root of the Dürer interest reaches back to her youth. Her father's
church in Chicago had a carved wooden altar that was influenced by the
German baroque tradition. Both the baroque imagery and the church inform
Nancy's heart and hand but in a way that is not always transparent.

Nancy's work in poetry is less known to many of her friends. She sees a
deep relation between the two activities. Her own interest began many
years ago. Eventually she and other artists incorporated some of these
poems in their paintings. More recently her interest has quickened and
she has composed a number of prize-winning poems. Her investigations and
appreciation of other poets can be intense. After seeing *Il Postino*
she took up Neruda's poetry. She was upset by the translation she
obtained, particularly when it came to color imagery. With only her
college French and a smattering of Italian she started on the Spanish
translations and soon found problems.

But that's not all. Along the way Nancy and Dick wrote two potboiler
sci-fi adventure stories. One of these, *The Siren Stars*, found its way
onto at least one Internet list as a great of cyber fiction. Unbeknownst
to Nancy and Dick it was translated into French. Unfortunately the movie
script prepared in Hollywood was never produced.

Nancy has always been interested in stage production and presentation.
She starred in plays at Senn High School. At Illinois she worked on Star
Course and Club Commons to the point that she was elected to the
freshman and sophomore leadership honoraries. Back at Fermilab, she
became interested in the nascent Fermilab arts program. Through the
efforts of many, that program became one of the important cultural
venues in the Chicago western suburbs.

Nancy was born in Champaign, Illinois. When she was about six her father
became minister of the Edgewater Beach Presbyterian Church in Chicago.
The family lived in an enormous manse on the top story of the church.
Because of that, Nancy could not have a dog. Her mother told her she
could have one when she married. It is possible this was the reason
Nancy married and later was owned by Nicky, Gus, Bronwyn, Sally, and
Blau.

Nancy's early life was immersed in religion. Her grandfather, father,
many uncles, and her brother were all ministers (albeit in a variety of
denominations). There were prayers and bible readings at the evening
meal. Nancy went to every service. Those years left her with an
encyclopedic knowledge of the bible, including a fine eye for many of
the ambiguities. Her conventional religious life lasted past college
where she sang in the McKinley choir even after Dick returned to
Champaign for graduate work. When Nancy and Dick moved to Pittsburgh and
Carnegie-Mellon they tried church again so that the children would be
exposed to Sunday school. This lasted for several months until the
preacher started in on graven images in a sermon. Nancy never went back.
Nevertheless her life, view, and art have been strongly influenced by a
serious moral center.

In Chicago Nancy went to Swift School and high school at Senn. An
interesting feature of Senn was that homerooms were assigned by
activities. Nancy was in the drama homeroom. Was there also an art
homeroom? Her interest in art was already high. When she entered the
University of Illinois she wanted to major in art but her father
insisted on a more marketable direction. This started a four-year battle
of wills that ended with Nancy having a major in journalism but a
heroic-sized minor in art that became all consuming. Still life was not
all work in Champaign. By the time Dick met her as a sophomore, she had
fifty dance favors hung on her mirror and was preparing a dress to be
Tidy Heidi on a parade float.

Nancy transferred to Northwestern for her senior year after Dick
graduated and was promptly drafted for the just-ending Korean War.
Shortly after that they were engaged. They married the day of Nancy's
graduation. Several days later she was working as a draftsperson on
White Sands Proving Ground projects. A few months later she became
editor of the Aggie, New Mexico State's new alumni magazine. When Dick
returned to Champaign for graduate school, she became an editor at the
Water Well Journal and later an editor for the College of Agriculture.
Both Caroline and Steve were born in Champaign in the same hospital and
with the same doctor that had delivered Nancy.

When Dick graduated, they moved to Pittsburgh. A few years later, they
traveled to Hamburg on leave. While there, Dick received an offer to
join Fermilab as it started. Nancy has been back in Chicago ever since
making her life in the arts, raising two children, seeing Steve married
to Lisa, and now blessed with a lovely granddaughter, Brooke Anne.

Finally, a personal note. Nancy has been a wonderful wife, mother, and
grandmother. Following Titania she has "walked hand in hand with fairy
grace to sing and dance and bless our place."

Dick Carrigan