An Intuitive Connection

“My drawing process is eyes closed so that I feel the image rather than see it.” Nadia agrees that to be an artist is to be vulnerably accessible to form, meaning that one is in tune with their feelings and able to express them without inhibitions. Nadia’s calmness is soothing, and while she credits her worldly travels, meditation practices, and the ocean for much of her inspiration, she admits that she was “born this way.” Her unspoken connection to nature provides her with a sensitivity that she can only explain through her sculptures.

Explaining how different she is from her parents, Nadia laughs tenderly. “My dad is old-fashioned military. He believes in numbers and columns so much that he cringes at my fluid artistic views, poor guy.” It was her father’s Air Force orders to Germany and Belgium that exposed her to the European way of living, which was a better fit for her artistic soul than mainland America. After his retirement, their family moved to Sydney, before finally settling in Texas where Nadia graduated with a BFA in Sculptural Ceramics. Her Australian mother was her biggest supporter and the true fuel to her artistic flame. She solidified Nadia’s commitment to her gifts of sculpture and design. “Mama never stopped my questioning of the world,” the tears added a soft tremble to her voice. A silence came over her as she reminisced and remembered the memory of lying next to her mother on her deathbed eleven years ago, “I felt her energy leaving her body just like a butterfly leaves a chrysalis.” Nadia’s final moments with her mother were what helped her realize that she had to become the artist she was meant to be. “You can’t keep shoving emotions away. Just like the earth must shift, build up and release, so must we or we die.”

Seeking a deeper understanding of her purpose, she began to study meditation, eventually forging a deep connection with a spiritual teacher who moved to Hawai‘i. Following her meditation teacher, she settled in the islands in Waimanalo, O‘ahu, and immediately felt at home. Nadia fell in love with the kindness of the people and the Aloha way of living that goes past skin color and race. “Hawai‘i is so special—it still lives and breathes like the old way.” Some of her favorite pieces that she’s worked on serve to prove her appreciation of the islands; although many would have seen them as a pile of trash, they called out to Nadia. Her intuition and strong visual imagery lead her to carve a partially rotten Koa branch into Pele’s Teardrop—one of her most complimented carvings by locals and tourists alike.

While it has been an uphill battle adjusting to the cost of living here in Hawai‘i, Nadia appreciates what a simple life entails. She uses focused intention with her time and repurposes everything she can instead of buying new tools or materials. She finds peace in the surf and tides, letting all of her artistic works pay tribute to this “rugged, delicate, and raw” place that we call paradise. You can find Nadia’s work on her website: https://www.nadiafairlambart.com and take private classes from her amidst the COVID-19 pandemic at her Waimanalo studio.