Early Career: Nicole's first public recognition as an artist rather inadvertently began when she won a Newport Beach, California city logo contest, shortly followed by her solo creation in approximately 1978 of a mural of the constellations on the curved surfaces of the Harvard-Smithsonian Observatory dome (the long-standing Harvard-Smithsonian observatory relationship is now referred to as the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics). In her younger career, she also served as Art Director for a small local high school magazine (“Flotsam & Jetsam”), where her flowery style arguably first emerged, and where she stood out for her magazine cover that opened with a gate fold, like magical gates for the reader to enter; After high school, while in college, she served as Art Director of University Television at the University of Pennsylvania, and as a cartoonist for the school newspaper. Nicole’s writing career also began with early recognition, including her winning first prize in an Orange County, California poetry contest in 1974, for a poem that began, "A cat prances on the wall, After the flakes he chases, Hop-pounce-tumble-and-fall, Silly winter races." In terms of her writing, after graduating, in addition to publishing non-fiction writing pertaining to business matters such as “Multimedia and Software Agreements” published by the The Daily Journal Corporation in connection with the Digital World 95 Conference, Nicole combined her love of art and business in the “Art Avenue” column (which was published in both the “Equine Image” and “Canine Image” magazines).
Current Career: M. Nicole van Dam is an internationally licensed artist and author. As an international artist, Nicole's work is licensed by international manufacturers for many products, such as glass plates, tile wall murals, collectibles, etc., and as a result people around the world have purchased Nicole's work. Nicole has been written up in collector newsletters, including international newsletters that published Nicole's poetry as well as her other creations. Examples of the many products made using licensed images of Nicole's art can be seen at http://www.artstudio.bz/. In 1978, Nicole as a solo artist did a mural of the constellations and astrological symbols inside the Harvard/Smithsonian Observatory dome.
Exhibitions and Access: Nicole's art has been exhibited publicly many times at various venues, and has been on exhibit at a gallery/business/public venue continuosly for more than a decade, which is an unusual accomplishment for most artists. One of Nicole's solo exhibitions in 2006 has been recorded by Marjorie Cronshaw on behalf of the Montecito, California Montecito History Committee, and Nicole was named an artist to watch by the "Montecito Journal." Since approximately 2008, Nicole's fine artwork has been on display at Santa Barbara, California City Hall. More recently, Community Memorial Hospital acquired a large collection of M. Nicole van Dam works scheduled to commence display in February 2011, following a display of Nicole's artwork and poetry there in 2010. A full portfolio of M. Nicole van Dam's artwork can be seen on the web at http://www.artimagination.com/ and examples of the many products made using licensed images of her art can be seen at http://www.artstudio.bz/. A retrospective of M. Nicole van Dam works has also been published, entitled “M. Nicole van Dam, A Retrospective 2010.” M. Nicole van Dam’s current gallery exhibitions often include recitations of her poetry and philosophy combined with her art, in large part taken from her book “Tempo – The Rhythm and Rhyme of the Artist.”
Children's Books – “Inca Dink, The Great Houndini”: M. Nicole van Dam is also the author and illustrator (and co-narrator with Dominic Byrne) for her children's book, "Inca Dink, The Great Houndini and Nicole created a blog for this book at http://incadink.com/." “Inca Dink, The Great Houndini” is available in traditional print and digitally (narrated with Dominc Byrne version is digital primarily for Apple Inc. iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch). "Inca Dink, The Great Houndini" is written in sing-songy rhyme, a bit reminescent of Seuss. The main characters of “Inca Dink, The Great Houndini” are Hilary Mouse and Inca Dink, a Leonberger dog magician in training. Merchandise has been created themed towards these two “Inca Dink, The Great Houndini” characters and is available at http://www.greathoundini.com/ .
Adult Books - "Tempo - The Rhythm and Rhyme of the Artist" and "Through the Artist's Eyes": M. Nicole van Dam is also the author of several adult works, including "Through the Artist's Eyes" and "Tempo - The Rhythm & Rhyme of the Artist." Each of these books pairs her artwork with her poetry and philosophy, such as the combination in "Tempo - The Rhythm and Rhyme of the Artist" of the "Voting Booth" painting with her poem "Politics".
M. Nicole van Dam attributes her creativity in making these diverse works to the inspiration provided by her family, garden and pets, as shown by this blog http://www.our1earth.com/.
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