About Nichól
I currently sell my soft sculptures, gouache painting, and drawings at Fine Arts Festivals around the US. For my soft sculptures (I call them Wall Dolls), I use a variety of patterns, textures, and techniques. Each piece is unique and one-of-a-kind. For my paintings and drawings I use a range of medium: gouache, ink, prisma color, and brush pens. I also draw digitally on Procreate. My drawings and prints can be found right here on my website, and occasionally, I will do an online release of my soft sculptures. Excitedly, I have also published two illustrated book, The ABCs of New Orleans and the 123s of New Orleans! I live in Waco, TX in a colorful home with my artist husband, son, daughter, and dog, Fred.
Early Life
I was born in Joliet, Illinois. I grew up drawing, making comic strips, and painting murals on my backyard fence. I loved making characters and creating worlds of my own. In college, I studied painting, earning my BFA in Fine Arts from Memphis College of Art. Though my focus was painting, I was always crafting things in some way: painting on wood I cut, painting on pages and binding them into books. For my thesis show, I created a series of shadow box, puppet theaters, telling stories from my childhood.
After school, my Mom was very sick, and I started hand sewing while keeping her company by her bed. The repetitive stitching helped me to feel calm during a stressful time. She passed away. During my grief, I found myself cheered and energized by reading the creative blogs. I was especially interested in the “plushy makers” and wanted desperately to learn how to do that myself. I gave myself a project to sew a “pillow monster a day”, documenting each one on a blog, and in doing so honed my skills. Everything changed for me after that. I loved making the characters and giving them life. I designed and sewed so many soft sculptures of monsters, cactus people, kids in animal suits: all the things I would draw in my sketch book. It’s a world I constructed that is still growing today. Additionally, simplifying the shapes for sewing them into dolls made my drawings flatter and better. It was a creative, fruitful time that in the end, I am grateful for.
Inspiration
I started Pink Cheeks after my son, Walter, was born. My shop is named for his bright, pink, innocent baby cheeks. I sewed one-of-a-kind baby mobiles featuring ninjas, sumos, trees, bandits, and mustache men, and I made doll portraits of families that could be hung on the wall.
In 2012, my family moved to Louisiana for my husband’s job (a painting professor at Nicholls State University). We visited New Orleans and it was like coming home. I’m very inspired by the colors of the homes (like a basket full of Easter eggs), the whimsical designs of the iron railings, the people with sparkles on their faces and the music everywhere you turn.
