Émile Gallé
Among his inspirations, Nicholson credits the architects Antoni Gaudi and Frank Lloyd Wright, the glass artists Émile Gallé and René Lalique, and Louis Comfort Tiffany as particularly influential. Nature is also a very significant influence on his work, and he has said he finds it difficult to work in an urban context. After starting out in Manhattan with only a small tree and a pet African bullfrog to keep him in touch with nature, he relocated his studio in the early 1980s to Kerhonkson, a tiny hamlet in New York State which offered a more conductive working environment.