Artist Natalie Biggs moved to Oklahoma when she was 13 years old. She attended Putnam City High School and UCO, where she discovered art as a hobby, then a calling. A former art teacher now working at Arthaus, she also displayed pieces at OVAC’s 12×12 event this October. She has collaborative art hanging at Round Midnight in Edmond, and you can find more of her work on Instagram.
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Kristen Grace: Tell me about how you found art and about how art found you.
Natalie Biggs: I really believe it’s because of the people in my life. My dad encouraged me to make art. He noticed when I was young that art lit a spark in me, and helped me focus. From there, I have always been making something with my hands. I took a humanities course in high school, and I had the most incredible teacher. In college, I was an elementary education major, but my roommate was a graphic design major, and I was so jealous of her art and all that she was learning—so of course I changed my major to art education.
KG: I noticed the pattern work in your art. I just want to fall into these pieces. I’m curious about what it means to you.
NB: This is a common thread for me: making marks which show a moment in time and noticing what makes me happy and what brings me peace. Over the past five years, the patterns and grids I have been creating have helped me bring consistency, order and control to my time. I have so many ideas in my mind but I need something with order. Lately, I have switched over to tiny florals. My art is an effort to make me happy, an exercise that allows me to see what brings me joy. Whatever scratches the itch of making my hands move.
KG: Tell me more about the floral paintings that you are creating.
NB: I have been doing these very small floral paintings in the evenings for the last month as a release; it’s a reset for the next day. I’m drawing from the Impressionists. I’m taking inspiration from floral books I checked out from the library, and from my own imagination, colors that I’m into at the moment—just a Pandora’s box of ideas based on what I am feeling on that day.
I think what’s brought me here today is prioritizing what I love so that I can share it with people.
KG: I would love to hear about the pieces you create in collaboration with your friend Eric Lyons.
NB: We met around 20 years ago and we’ve been professional colleagues and friends ever since. I’m really interested in showing time through mark-making, and he is interested in sourcing vintage photos and telling a new story through those photos, and so we collaborate using both our styles. We don’t technically work on the pieces at the [same] time—we tend to work a little bit and trade off. It takes a lot of trust, but I think our styles work so well together.
KG: What are you dreaming about for the future? What’s next?
NB: For the future, I’m looking into learning how to frame my art in fun ways. I’m also looking into decorative interior painting work, plaster work. Like Italian murals but a little more bespoke; think hand-painted, fun, funky patterns that bring life to a hallway or an entryway. I have a passion and love for interior design but the styling side of it.
