Vision Magazine - Visionary Artist

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Visionary Artist – August 2007

A native of Southern California, Nichole Blackburn has been drawing and painting for as long as she can remember. With knowledge in all areas of fi ne art, she has done everything from murals to decorative painting, from three-story ceilings to hand-painted scrollwork, and specializes in large scale mural work. Currently, Nichole is the owner of Celadon Studio, a fi ne art company based out of Los Angeles that specializes in custom mural work. Nichole has taught children’s art classes at the San Diego Museum of Art, as well as worked as a designer for the San Diego Union Tribune.

Taking her love of drawing and painting to the next level, Nichole has traveled to over 25 countries worldwide in order to experience art in every form possible. Nichole’s love for children and art has brought her donation work to several facilities in the U.S. In 2005 Nichole donated a 15-foot mural to the Starview Foundation, a facility in Los Angeles for troubled children and teens. In 2006 Nichole donated another mural to the Palos Verdes Montessori School for their International Children’s Festival. Nichole also spent a month on the East Coast, where she apprenticed under William Cochran, one of the country’s leading trompe l’oeil muralists and co-founder of the non-profi t, Shared Vision. During this time she joined a selected team of six artists who worked on a five-story public mural project called “The Dreaming.” Nichole spent July 2007 in Phuket, Thailand where she worked on a donated 25- foot mural for a children’s school there.

This month, Nichole is on her way to Ireland to donate another mural to a school as well. In November she will go to the Philippines to work on yet another mural at a children’s orphanage and in 2008 she is working on donation murals in Bolivia and Mexico. Nichole’s goal is to start a non-profi t organization in order to donate murals to children’s facilities around the world. She sees this as an opportunity to enrich children through art, as well as inspire and give back to the community. To Nichole, these projects are about arousing awareness, as well as giving back on a global level. “I have learned that there is a whole world of different cultures, religions, and ways of life and we can learn from it all.” says Nichole of her travels, “I have learned to be humble. I have learned that when I am a visitor in another country, I am a guest. I have learned the power of a heartfelt smile can communicate volumes, even when you don’t speak the language.”