Rhonda Nass

Rhonda Nass was catapulted to an art career by her high school art teacher's comment, "You could never be an artist." She graduated with an art education degree from UW-Madison, married a fellow art student the following day, and Rick Nass and she birthed Ampersand (studio and publisher) 3 years later. After 40 years Ampersand continues, now in the home/studio on the banks of the Wisconsin River in Prairie du Sac, WI (where two rescued and needy cats require Rick and Rhonda to work full time). Artists from whom Nass draws inspiration are Caravaggio, Robert Bateman, Wayne Theibaud, and Rick Nass. Her artworks have repeatedly won awards in the annual International Exhibitions of the Colored Pencil Society of America; works are in numerous collections, including the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon. Rhonda creates drawings and paintings for museum, corporate and private commissions and is published internationally. She previously co-published GIFTS FROM THE EARTH, a Basketmakers Field Guide to Midwest Botanicals, with Char TerBeest; illustrated the leading university botany textbook, BIOLOGY OF PLANTS, through several editions; and her latest book (written/illustrated/published by Nass) is SCRATCHINGS OF A MADWOMAN, Personal Stories and Colored Pencil Drawings Illustrating Intimacy with God. Ten of the artworks appearing in the book--a book which took 15 years to complete--have been juried into international exhibits, five winning monetary awards. Kickstarter backers supported SCRATCHINGS... by contributing $25,000 toward printing. It has won "Best Of" in the softcover book category for Great Lakes Graphics printing competition, winning over all entries from Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. Nass offers 2 and 3-day graphite, acrylic, and colored pencil workshops, along with SCRATCHINGS... presentations nationwide.