Nancy-Lou Patterson

Nancy-Lou Patterson D.Litt. (September 5, 1929 – October 15, 2018) was a Canadian artist, writer and curator. Known for her writing and artistic work related to topics ranging from folklore and fantasy to liturgical design and Indigenous art, she was responsible for the founding of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo.

Early life and education Patterson was born September 5, 1929, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her parents, originally from Seattle, Washington, were academics and the family lived in various parts of the northern United States, with Patterson spending much of her childhood in Illinois. The family returned to Seattle at the start of World War II where she attended high school and graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1951.

Career Following graduation from the University of Washington, Patterson spent two years teaching at the University of Kansas and as a scientific illustrative for the Smithsonian before returning to Seattle to work as a lecturer at the Seattle University.

In 1962 Patterson moved to Waterloo, Ontario, with her husband E Palmer Patterson II, of New Orleans, where he had accepted a position at the University of Waterloo.

Artistic themes and writing During the 1950s, prior to arriving in Waterloo, Patterson found inspiration in liturgical themes situating her artistic practice within a belief that the worship of God is both a physical and spiritual endeavor. Over the course of her career she produced a number of notable works informed by an understanding of art as a vehicle for aiding spiritual worship. In addition to a mural created for an Anglican Church in Kansas, Patterson was commissioned to produce a number of liturgical pieces. She designed a series of stained glass windows at a variety of institutions within the Region of Waterloo including those at University of Waterloo's Conrad Grebel Chapel (1964), the Beth Jacob Synagogue and the Pioneer Park branch of the Kitchener Public Library. She was equally interested in mythopoeic art and literature writing extensively about of authors representative of the genre including C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, George MacDonald and Dorothy L. Sayers.

Another of Patterson's areas of interest was Indigenous art, which she both published and taught about over the course of her career. Former student and art educator Linda Carson remembered Patterson's courses as the first to highlight Indigenous artists, using and referring to First Nations communities by name, rather than strictly focusing on European artists.

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(with E Palmer Patterson)