Nancy Klapp

As a third generation Texan, I trace my ancestors to humble, industrious, community-minded Swedish and bellicose, clannish German/Scottish immigrants who helped settle Texas. The attitudes of my predecessors frame the questions I ponder every day in my studio: "How much conformity? How much rebellion?"

I left San Antonio, my birthplace and home, after attending McNay Art Institute, San Antonio College and the University of Texas, Austin where I received my bachelor's degree. I received my Master of Art degree from the University of Missouri and did post-graduate work at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where I also taught.

After 50 years I returned to San Antonio to care for my mother, who had earlier inspired in me the same appreciation and excitement she had experienced as a young bride, when discovering the flamboyant culture and historic, architectural treasures of San Antonio. She led me, as a child, on enchanted explorations of missions, La Vallita, the Alamo, cathedrals, lawn shrines, beautiful, rustic, tinted adobe cottages and dramatic religious iconography. My imagination was charged.
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Baltimore, East Hampton, New York and Washington D.C. were cities where I came under the influences of modern European art that contributed to my understanding of aesthetic predisposition and psychological intention in art making. I feel these great resources, education, galleries and museums of these cosmopolitan cities offered a depth to my expression. However, it was San Antonio that offered me the visceral, visual aesthetic impact that shaped the early foundation of my life as an artist.