Conrad NelsonAbout Conrad Nelson
Conrad Nelson is a woman of many talents, with artistic experience in a great number of genres. But collage has been at the center of her attention for the last several years, and much of her considerable body of work is contained on this website.
A Very Different Background
A practicing artist for the last 40 years, Conrad’s professional life began much differently. While a corporate banker in Philadelphia, Conrad took courses at the Philadelphia Art Museum and The Fleisher School of Art in Philadelphia. After a banking career, she returned to school to complete her bachelor’s degree and used her one elective for an art course. That was a turning point! Conrad then went on to get a degree in Fine Arts and moved to Colorado, where she entered the world of exhibitions and teaching and became a practicing artist.
When her artwork was put on hold for major back surgery, Conrad Nelson kept active making jewelry and multi-patterned fabric bags during recovery. Then a close artist friend died and left her a collection of papers and other supplies, so Conrad began to work again in mixed media, making collages using the inherited treasure chest to create new pieces. Given much of her early work in mixed media, it was a natural progression.
Giving Back
When Conrad is not making art, she contributes her time and financial support to local projects and institutions with landscape design and construction, art experience and ideas, and town and county planning and land use policy. She was voted Buena Vista Citizen of the Year in 2008. Given her love of animals, she has devoted much time and support to the Ark-Valley Humane Shelter in Chaffee County. In 2012, she was elected the first inductee to the AVHS Hall of Fame, and one of her most notable acknowledgments came from The Rose Foundation of Colorado, which selected Conrad as Colorado’s Outstanding Philanthropist of the Year in 2015.
Other Interests
Conrad Nelson is also a professional landscape designer with several projects under her belt, including gardens installed at the Buena Vista Public Library, one at a local business in town, and a large undertaking of the campus landscape at Colorado Mountain College. She even used the concepts learned from Swedish designers Van Arsdale and Oehme Van Sweden to construct a 4-acre garden at her mountain home. And upon moving into town, Conrad filled a large city plot surrounding her new home with more of her design ideals, creating an inviting respite. These gardens, as with all of her projects, are filled with detail, warmth and wonder.
Conrad also loves to read, work puzzles, and she has sung in the Collegiate Peaks Chorale, recently portraying a nun in The Sound of Music. She enjoys knitting, making artisan bread, and she readily volunteers in the community. Her dearest treasures are her cats, dogs, and horses, her late husband and the wonderful friends she has collected, both near and far.
Conrad’s Art
Take a look at her artistic endeavors in original collage work here.