Nancy Jean Tankersley Taylor, BFA ‘77

Nancy Jean, born in Oakland, CA on Dec. 22, 1943 was a deeply trained, educated, and practiced fine artist. She painted from the 1970’s until her passing on June 11, 2008 in Sonoma, Ca. She is survived by her daughter, grandson and me, her younger sister. Her body of works include fine art oil pastel paintings of museum quality, red/black/gray charcoal portraits that capture the essential nature of her subjects, botanicals and plants, large abstract paintings, collages, fabric clothing design, copious diaries, letters and drawing books. She also made several large paper books and one drawing book for other artists. Although she was highly productive, making art every day for over 40 years in Northern California, primarily in Berkeley, she died unknown in the Art World. She was treasured and held closely by her family who protected her. She had developed a severe case of ‘Adult Onset Paranoid Schizophrenia’ or ‘Chronic Thinking Disorder’ when she was 30. It was the cause of the d