Nancy JonesFrancis

Nancy JonesFrancis worked in journalism, both in newspapers and on public radio. Part of her print journalism work focused on visual information, including page design, which was becoming essential to newspapers during the 1980s. Piet Mondrian's paintings were the newspaper field's first inspiration, so Nancy strove to create clean, modular pages. Mondrian's work continues to influence her, along with that of other abstract painters, such as Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Diebenkorn, Joan Mitchell, and Louise

Fishman.

Nancy received her BA in English from Syracuse University. However, she initially majored in photography because she had loved taking pictures since childhood. But with the realization of spending a lifetime in the darkroom breathing toxic chemicals, Nancy decided to pursue a different degree. While at SU, she worked for the student-run newspaper, The Daily Orange, handling a variety of tasks, including reporting, editing, designing pages. Here is where she discovered a love for graphic design. A few years after graduating, Adobe invented Photoshop, and not too long after that, the digital camera became a thing, so there was no need to work in the darkroom. During her career, she continued to work with words, but her other tasks included creating graphics in both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, designing pages, and preparing them for print.

Nancy enjoys reinterpreting the real world and her photographs into abstract and minimalist paintings.