Throughout her long career, the painter Nancy Cheairs has sought inspiration from multiple sources; her most recent work is influenced by regional folk arts and origami. “Figuring out how to juxtapose different ideas, finding their connective thread, and constructing them into a believable place is both a challenge and a reward in my painting process,” she had said. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, the artist works surrealistic forms and architectural, geometric shapes into her brightly colored canvases. She uses lush tones of oil and watercolor paints, and incorporates a conceptually unified set of symbols into each piece. As one Artforum critic wrote, “Cheairs is gifted with the power to get at life’s truths and express them in bold visual terms.”