About
Nicole Cotten graduated from the University of Colorado Denver with a bachelor of fine arts, emphasis in painting, and a minor in creative writing. Her thesis work plays with the idea of old board games coming to life. Some aspects from the game take a more realistic appearance while others stay innocent, plastic and overly colorful. This strange mix of traits exposes some of the grim ideas behind these children’s games that so often go unnoticed. At the same time, it also reminds the viewer of how they once saw these games come to life.
During her studies at CU Denver, Nicole focused on painting until she enrolled in a study abroad program in Florence, Italy. There she was introduced to the traditional craft of bookbinding and she became enamored by the skill.
Nicole graduated from the University of Iowa Center for the Book with an MFA in book arts. Her master's thesis consists of a collection of handmade books that illustrate selected Grimms’ fairy tales and offer an unexpected interpretation of the actions of the heroes. Each book displays a unique cover decoration, inspired by medieval European treasure bindings. Treasure bindings incorporate dimensional decorative elements such as gems, gold or other metalwork and often depict Christ's suffering. In a similar way, Fool's Gold beautifies the suffering of the protagonists using gold leaf, glass beads and lush illustrations. A traditional hidden fore-edge painting technique is used to reveal more scenes from each story. When the pages are fanned opened, the fore-edge paintings display the gruesome revenge the perceived heroes take upon the villains.
