“Nancy Thygesen (BFA, MPS) is an artist, faith-based art therapist, movement specialist and inspiring speaker, sharing and teaching through the universal languages of art and movement. Her mission in therapy and creating art is to support and inspire that creative light that heals mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
Her work expresses an active searching out of the ‘thin places’, those thresholds where God seems particularly close to our world, and to create a portal for the viewer to meditate in those spaces.
Nancy’s photo encaustic paintings fuse layers of beeswax/resin medium with pan pastel, giving them an opaque mystery, creating a luminescence that bridges the natural world to the spiritual. Cold wax added to oil portrays this same rarified atmosphere in abstract landscape narratives. The barrier between heaven and earth is porous because the Lord, in His kindness, met a person there.
Nancy reconnected with her artist self in the journey of completing her masters in art therapy. With 25 years teaching movement and art expression, Nancy has facilitated art therapy with women in addictions recovery, sexual abuse and trauma, and cancer survivors. Her mission in therapy and creating art is to create a safe space for healing mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. She is a facilitator for the Caring for the Wounded Heart trauma healing program (traumahealinginstitute.org) and offers her own expressive arts workshops online and in person. She also is is a certified Pilates teacher, teaching both groups and privately.
She is a member of the Harrison Art Guild, has exhibited in Edmonton (NOA Gallery), Abbotsford, and Harrison Hot Springs (Ranger Gallery) and is grateful to receive commissions. Her collaborations in Alberta )Edmonton) include: Grey Nuns and Royal Alexandra Hospitals, NOA Art Gallery, Cross Cancer Institute, ADEARA (Women’s Residential Addiction Recovery) BC: Pearl Life Renewal Ministry, Chilliwack.
Nancy married her soulmate Rick in 2013, has two amazing married adult children and grandmother to seven (doing art with them as soon as they could hold a crayon). Rick and Nancy migrate between Edmonton and Harrison Mills, BC. Her happy place is on a paddle board on the Harrison River.
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