Nikki McClure
OLD WOODEN BOAT
Wild Arts Festival welcomes the talented artist and author, Nikki McClure. As a cut-paper artist, Nikki emphasizes the natural world in her picture books and often sets stories near her Salish Sea home in Olympia, Washington. Her newest book, Old Wooden Boat, has both stunning, intricate illustrations and beautiful prose. This gorgeous homage to sailing and the sea won the 2023 Washington State Book Award. The New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2024 was Nikki’s Something About the Sky. This non-fiction title pairs Nikki with one of the foremothers of the environmental movement, Rachel Carson, and represents several years of visual experimentation and archival sleuthing to be able to bring the book to press. The book is based on a script that Carson wrote about clouds for an educational program that aired in 1956. Nikki used a special hand-tinted paper technique for this contemplative and stirring title. When Nikki isn’t writing or illustrating, she says that she spends her time, “swimming, sailing, and birdwatching...oh, and wondering what to make for dinner, too.”