Nicole Woodard

I make sculpture that focuses on portraiture and the human form. I’m deeply motivated by my own emotional struggles and confronting fundamental traumas in my life. I have felt so much emptiness, resentment, and anger. Holding onto feelings of shame and secret have become intertwined with my identity. Making is intuitive and helps to create part of myself in a tangible form. I'm showing truth of my human condition by shedding the burden I carry, and am looking onto the future of whom I want to become. I’ve gravitated towards making work that leaves evidence of my hand. When I’m making, I work directionally, building in details as I go, without making major alterations. After I’ve finished a form, I layer ceramic stain to add definition to the body and draw the features on last. The gaze I draw is most often of longing, and repeat the same form to overcome through confrontation.

Nicole Rene Woodard is an artist living in Kansas City, Missouri. She earned a BFA in Visual Art at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a MFA in Ceramics from the University of Kansas. Nicole was awarded the Foundation Residency at Belger Crane Yard Studios in Kansas City in 2021 and 2022. She teaches foundation and ceramic courses at Benedictine College and the University of Kansas. Nicole is exhibiting nationally and has completed short term residencies at the Hambidge Center and Penland School of Crafts.