We know you single folks are busy. iList Paducah's Mary Thorsby goes on that first date so you don't have to!

January 7, 2009

Nikki D. May

iList Paducah co-owner, designer and fabulous fine artist Nikki D. May, 41, has long been attracted to non-conformists like herself. That’s all well and good — until they do very bad things. This year, Nikki’s resolved: No more bad boys! She’s ready to transform her taste, and we’re taking charge!

Nikki D. May, you are cute, cute, cute, no doubt about it! I love working with you every day on iList Paducah! We’re such a match!
We’re a total match! And look how cute we are together on a Vespa (below)!

I know! So let’s get right to it. What’s up with you and all these bad boys you attract? Your taste in men is terrible.
I wish I knew! There could be 50 great guys in a room and I’d pick the one jerk out of the bunch!

Why? It’s like you have “bad boy radar” or something.
I think the main thing is that I’m attracted to people who, like myself, are non-conformists. I am attracted more by creativity than consistency. I love change and people who don’t live by other people’s ideas of how you should be — but that often means they don’t follow any rules at all.

Right! I can see that! Have you always had such bad taste?
I don’t think I have bad taste, I just tend to take people at face value and believe they are who they say they are. I don’t always take the time to find out if it’s really true. I’m a bit impulsive.

Um, a bit?
OK, more than a bit. And I get in too deep before finding out that they aren’t always what they appear to be.

It’s ironic, considering what a cynic I am in so many ways. But I’m so honest about who I am right up front, I assume other people are the same, and I’m surprised when people aren’t who they seem to be.

Combine that with impulsiveness and you get a recipe for disaster. I need to work on that!

You’ve had some good ones, though, yes?
Of course! My first husband was (and is) a great guy, and we’re still friends. It just wasn’t the right match long-term. I’ve dated some great guys and some…

Clunkers.
Yes, clunkers. And the non-bad boys I meet always seem to be married or gay or much, much younger or older than I am. There must be some other possibilities out there, but I’ve been missing them. I do have some new ideas that might help, however…

Nikki, you are so awesome. Gorgeous, talented, funny, big heart, wild — you deserve an awesome guy — or maybe an awesome gal?! Monica Bilak and I are taking control of your love life.
Good!

From now on, they all have to come through us first. Are you ready?
Yep. I clearly can’t be trusted to choose for myself, and since you and Monica are both married to great men, I put my dating future in your capable hands!

Well, it took me a very long while, so Lesson No. 1 is patience. OK, so bad boys aside, what are you looking for?
I want to be with someone who can stimulate me emotionally and intellectually. I want to be with someone who appreciates my strength and independence but can stand up to that and challenge me.

A relationship of equals.
Exactly! I don’t want someone to just settle in and follow me, and I don’t want someone to depend on me for everything — although I will be there to depend on.

I want to be with someone who accepts me the way that I am, but encourages me to become who I want to be. I will do the same in return.

Rock on! We’ll find someone, and he/she will be one very lucky person.
It’s going to be hard. I work at home, so I spend most of my days alone with my computer – with you at the other end, of course! That’s one reason I bring my laptop to Etcetera and work there, just to get out and speak to people!

It also seems like a lot of people around here meet at church or through church functions, and since I’m not at all religious, that’s not really an option for me.

Hum, well, you’re going to have to show up at more places. I totally see you dating an artist. You’re an artist!
I am an artist.

You’re a fabulous artist. You came here through the Artist Relocation Program?
Yes, I came here from Atlanta. I was looking for a place to live that was more affordable. So a smaller town – but one that still had something going on with the arts. So I googled “small town art” and came across an article on Paducah in Art Calendar magazine.

What were you doing in Atlanta?
I was a Creative Director for IBM’s Centers for Solution Innovation. I took a 30-day temp job that turned into an accidental 10-year career.

You must have been making some serious coin. And you gave that up?
It’s true, I was making a lot of money and got to do a lot of exciting things, working with The New York Times on their Web site, working on the Sydney 2000 Olympics, spending six weeks in Paris on a project.

But I had no time or energy to do my own art, and even on the projects at IBM I was spending more time on conference calls, in meetings and on airplanes than I was being creative. I decided that I had to quit and go back to working for myself and doing my own art. That’s what led to my move to Paducah.

Your art is so beautiful. What do you like about working in encaustic?
When I saw encaustic for the first time, I was immediately attracted to the tactile quality of the wax — it was so luscious and sensual! And smells so good! I’ve worked with so many different media: painting in acrylic, oil, watercolor, drawing with pencil, charcoal, ink, printing on paper and fabric, collage with fabric and paper, photography and digital design. When I learned how to use encaustic, I saw a way to tie in many of the different materials that I love to use. It’s so versatile and unique! Plus, you never have to wash a paintbrush!

Naked women are a repeating element in lots of your pieces. Any particular reason?
Visual artists develop their own language for expressing themselves. Some have an abstract style of mark-making, some have specific imagery that help them say what they want to say.

The language that has developed in my work over the years includes the female form, organic shapes such as leaves and vines, and various interesting textures taken from life. The nude women are both a representation of myself and, more generally, a symbol of viewing life from a female perspective. I’ve been thinking about this a lot more lately, and it may also be that my subconscious was trying to telling me something about my attraction to women.

I love that! And the figures are really gorgeous. What do you hope folks get from your art?
The most important thing is that people respond to it on some level. I hope they see something that speaks to them, whether from a surface level of just thinking it’s beautiful, or hopefully something deeper, a memory, a feeling, a mood….

What do you get from it?
I get a way of working out my thoughts and feelings, an escape from the world outside, a way of expressing myself, and when I’m lucky, some nice external validation!

Well, your work is just beautiful, and you’re a wonderful addition to our community! Do you love it here?
I love the sense of community in Paducah, and especially in LowerTown. I lived in Atlanta for more than 20 years, but have made more friends in Paducah in the five years that I’ve been here.

And you even have your own signature drink!
Yes! Brian Steffen at di Fratelli’s created the Nikki-Tini for me for my birthday a few weeks ago. It’s like a margarita martini. It’s amazingly good!

I know! I love that about living in a smaller place. It seems special connections happen much more easily here.
I agree. In a big city you have access to everything you could ever want, but you feel much more isolated. Everyone is rushing around all the time. I spent 10 or 12 hours sitting in a cubicle and then another hour or two sitting in traffic.

Here I spend the time I would have sitting in my car sitting at the coffee shop getting to know my neighbors and talking about art with other artists.

Speaking of which, tell us about the Paducah Arts Alliance!
Well, you can read about it here, here and here, so I won’t repeat all the details. But basically it’s four LowerTown artists — myself, Paul Lorenz, Freda Fairchild and Teri Moore – who got together to focus solely on art and what it brings to the community.

We want to grow as artists, not only as business people. We want the community, especially people who have had little experience with art, to learn and participate. To that end, we are developing our artist residency program, workshops and collaborative projects. Expect to hear a lot more about the Paducah Arts Alliance in the coming year!

Well, Nikki May, I think you’re DAR-LING! Some fabulous artist is going to swoop into town and swoop you off your feet!
We’ll see…

Just send him or her to me first for the vetting process.
You’re on!