mrs. ciccoricco
piece of calm
Dutch fiber artist Natalie Ciccoricco went viral last spring for her iconic Nesting series, a collection that celebrates reconnecting with nature and your inner self while sheltering at home.
Natalie Ciccoricco had an art show in January of 2020 where not a single item sold.
Fast forward to 2021, Natalie has nearly 100,000 followers on instagram and more demand for her work than she knows what to do with.
Like her recent success, her path to becoming an artist hasn’t been linear. She’s always enjoyed making things, but until recently never considered herself an ‘artist’ or thought of art as a profession. “I always thought to be an artist you had to be technically skilled, or to be a painter,” she says. “The only artists that I knew were dead artists,” she laughs.
With an undergraduate degree in Language and Culture Studies, a Masters in Art and a robust education of art theory, film theory and digital media, Natalie worked in the computer game industry immediately post graduate. “That was all very new at the time,” she recalls of the growing computer game realm, but after she was laid off she switched gears to start her own translation company and work as a language consultant.
Language has always been intriguing to Natalie, who’s a Dutch native living in San Francisco, California with her American-born husband and three-year-old son, Lou. Her immersion in different cultures as a bilingual woman made this career move a good fit, but she remained interested in collage and embroidery, utilizing her artistic inclinations and craftiness. She wanted to do something with her hands after sitting at the computer for such long hours, and at the time Pinterest and Etsy were really taking off. People were making things and selling them! She recalls her astonishment- why couldn’t she do the same? Her mother had recently gifted her some embroidery thread and she began experimenting with embroidery to give her eyes a break from her computer screen.
But Natalie still couldn’t quite imagine a life as a full-time artist with her responsibilities as a mother to a toddler and balancing her budding career. Now, she’s learned that being an artist isn’t all or nothing. “You don’t have to quit your day job,” diclaims Natalie, who still works as a freelance language consultant in addition to her wildly popular paper embroidery brand, Mrs. Ciccoricco.
the nesting series
Natalie’s acclaimed series incorporates found objects from the deck and yard of her Northern California home, where she lives among the hills and nature. She also collects materials from hikes and road trips.
“I’ve been gathering materials and keeping things home and safe. It’s very symbolic,” she explains.
She first promoted the series on instagram, where she sold her initial pieces through auctions via instagram posts. Much to her surprise, her art went viral on different art blogs and social media pages. “This had never happened to me before to this extent in my artistic career,” she earnestly recalls.
Pre-nesting series, Natalie had preliminary sold her work through art galleries. Now she’s experienced first-hand the power of social media and how the artistic community has populated on instagram. “Anyone can just go on there and share their art and what they’re doing and it’s just so awesome,” revels Natalie. “It’s such a treasure trove of talent.”
stop and smell the roses
With nearly 150 pieces sold from her Nesting series, Natalie takes great pride in incorporating beach pottery, sticks, twigs and other found objects into her work.
“The idea was really recognized. The world was coming to a standstill, between the pandemic and the political atmosphere and climate change. The balance was lost,” Natalie shares. “We just pass by in the world without appreciating the beauty around us.”
an artful meditation
“The whole process is quite meditative for me. I always sit with an object for a while before creating. It curbs my anxiety to just escape to my studio and make some beautiful things.”
Natalie views the nesting series as open-ended; “it can never really be complete,” she says. It’s allowed her to start looking at the world differently, as she ponders “what else can I stitch to paper?” New ways, new shapes, new geometric forms.
Through this experience she’s reconnected with nature and explored her inner child. “Everyone has artistic tendencies in them. When I look at my son who’s three, he has that appreciation. I didn’t have to teach him that. We’re born with that eye, or we lose it along the way. or it gets buried somewhere. I think it’s still there,” smiles Natalie.
mrs. c’s creative channels
Mrs. Ciccoricco’s brand name commemorates her married name of Italian heritage. “My maiden name was Smeets, which is the dutch equivalent of Smith.” It captures not just her identity and transition as an artist, but that of a wife and mother.
embroidery inspired by-
David Lynch- his movies, his television series and his use of surrealism.
“During a recent interview he talked about a time he saw branches on a tree and how beautiful they were. I admire him and his outlook.”
Long walks through the woods listening to a podcast or audiobook
Visual arts and the work of Van Gogh and Caravaggio
Surreal literature (that of Haruki Murakumi)
Modern artists including David Eqsuivel, Adele D Reily and Kerith Lisi
Fleetwood Mac- enough said!
field of dreams
Although Natalie is now primarily selling through her website, she still conducts shows and exhibitions at art galleries. Natalie assumed in lieu of her education that she would eventually work in a gallery or museum to put her art and film theory knowledge to the test, and now she even dreams of owning her own gallery one day.
Until then, she’s supporting as many galleries as she can. “I’ve seen how many of them have been forced to close or have to get savvy to stay open,” she says. Natalie will continue to advocate for the valuable gallery experience that has inspired her art journey and provides exposure for emerging artists.
As Natalie continues her everpopular Nesting series and takes on larger commissioned projects, she remains inspired by her first loves of art and film. A lot in her life has been put on hold due to the pandemic and lockdown restrictions. “I’ve been surrendering to, ‘that’s not going to happen right now but what can I do instead?’”
By surrendering to the here and now, Natalie is producing her best and most appreciated work yet. Stay connected with Mrs. Ciccoricco and follow along on instagram and her website where Natalie uploads new work regularly.