When Nancy Dickinson was a child, she put her dollhouse outside and cut the grass around it with a scissors.
Not much has changed: Nowadays, she puts stump houses in the woods for her Acorn People, and makes tiny log piles for their fireplaces.
The Acorn People live in Acorn World, a miniature civilization Dickinson created. They live in the woods and use things from nature for their artifacts.
“For me, artwork is like playing,” says Dickinson, who lives in Leeds (where, she says, she locks her doors “because of the bears”). “But an artist is compelled to do it.”
Hampshire Life: What is your creative process like?
Nancy Dickinson: First, there’s a mental sketch. Then materials are collected from the woods. Trips are also made to art and hardware stores. Dioramas need to be eye catching, tell a story. They also need to be balanced, to scale and sturdy enough to last. I only clean up the studio when I’m stumbling over the mess.
H.L.: Does is start with a “Eureka!” moment?
N.D.: Ideas come all the time from observing human nature and the adventure of the forest.
H.L.: How do you know you’re on the right track?
N.D.: Things are coming along well when others are able to visualize what “this thing” is going to be when it’s finished.
H.L.: What do you do when you get stuck?
N.D.: It’s impossible to get stuck when making Acorn People. While the glue dries, you saw, you wire, you knit, you draw pictures, or you have lunch.
H.L.: How do you know when the work is done?
N.D.: The work is done when it looks like the original idea. It’s something that one can never do as a child and one of the satisfactions of being a grown up.
H.L.: What did you do today that relates to your art?
N.D.: I’m taking a step away from the non-technical world of Acorn People to edit some photographs of Acorn People with wild flowers.
H.L.: What do you plan to do in the future?
N.D.: Good question. Just make more stuff and give it away.
— Kathleen Mellen
Nancy Dickinson’s Acorn People are on view in dioramas with rotating scenes at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, 525 South Pleasant St. in Amherst. They can also be seen at the Lincoln Nursery School at the deCordova Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road in Lincoln.
For more information, visit nancydickinson.net.