The first creative circle that inspired me w as the largely literary circle of American Transcendentalists that gathered in the 1840's and 50's in and around Concord, Massachusetts. I have long been inspired by the profound contribution that this relatively small group of individuals made to the advancement of American culture. The central figure of American Transcendentalism was Ralph Waldo Emerson and other prominent members included: Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville and a young Louisa May Alcott. The members of this group discussed, debated, argued, and supported each other financially, emotionally, creatively, and spiritually.

Another creative circle that emerged in America was the group of musicians that lived together in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles in the 1960's and 70's. Joni Mitchell, Carole King, The Mamas and the Papas, Jackson Brown, and the Eagles, are just a few of the musical talents that discovered a new sound in the Los Angeles?suburbs and brought it to the world.

In East Hampton, NY, during the middle decades of the twentieth century, another famous circle of emergence developed; this time it was a group of painters. None of them were well known at the time, but many became revered names in the art world later including: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler and Robert Motherwell.

These painters spontaneous and free forms of artistic expression, using color to share the inner landscape of their feelings on canvas. Their paintings created a creative revolution that left an indelible mark on the world of art.

I first met Nicole Bigar eight years or so ago. She struck me as a sophisticated and lovely woman. I had known that she was an artist, but when I first went to her house and saw her works I w as truly astounded. Her paintings are magnificent. The canvases were stacked against the walls, and as I flipped through them, I was touched by the beautiful and bold use of color and form. She spent some time pointing out some of the different periods she went through and explaining the themes that she w as exploring.

As I learned more about Nicole's life, I found out that she was part of one of the creative circles I most admired, the Abstract Expressionists of East Hampton, NY. I enjoyed speaking with her about that time in her life and learning about the free- spirited exchange of ideas and inspiration that was being shared. When we decided to dedicate an issue to the expanding the possible, I knew that I would want to talk with Nicole to ask her about her experience with the Abstract Expressionist painters, and to explore her own relationship to art and what it means to her.

Jeff Carreira: Hello Nicole. Thank you for being here today. I want to start this interview by asking you how you came to be an artist and why you love art.

Nicole Bigar: When I came to America from France, I had never done any art before. But I went to a progressive school and an art teacher there opened me up to art, and I became fascinated by it. After high school, I attended the Art Students League and studied anatomy, sculpture, and painting. Later on, after I was married, I took a drawing class and found out that it was connected to Victor D’Amico – the lead teacher at the Museum of Modern Art – and that he was teaching people on location there to paint. I joined Victor’s group and, later, I took classes at the Art Barge in East Hampton – an art institute that Victor had founded.

The Art Barge was wonderful. We explored so many different experiences and learned numerous styles and techniques. I think the abstract expressionists, who were working there in the 70’s, were mainly painting from their heart. There was a rhythm to their painting; they added color and one thing would lead to the next.

Painting for some of us was like meditation. When you start a painting, you give yourself time to relax and empty your mind; and then you get into the swing and you let go. Sometimes somebody like Willem de Kooning would cut out an image of Marilyn Monroe and paste it in the middle of the canvas, and then paint all over and around it. The final image would have something like a woman in it, but really it was mostly about the feeling when it came to abstract impressionism. If you were angry, you could put it all on the canvas. If you were happy, you could celebrate that with very brilliant beautiful colors

Jeff Carreira: How did all the abstract impressionists end up in the Hamptons?

Nicole Bigar: They were all living in New York renting places there. They were all quite poor in the early days and didn’t become famous until much later on. They tended to hang out at Cedar Tavern on the eastern edge of Greenwich Village. At one point, someone heard that you could rent a house in the Hamptons and convert it into a studio where you could work in nature for much less than the price of rent in the city. Many of them moved out to East Hampton.

Jeff Carreira: Who were these artists that were meeting at Cedar Tavern and then started to move out to the Hamptons?

Nicole Bigar: Well, there was Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. There was Saul Steinberg who was doing some drawings for the New Yorker, and Tony Rosenthal who was sculpting upside squares. Everyone was doing something unusual.

Jeff Carreira: How did you end up being part of that circle?

Nicole Bigar: I was very lucky. I wanted to meet de Kooning and I knew his lawyer – who asked that we be introduced. After I was introduced, de Kooning recognized that I was really interested and that I was a painter, and so he let me watch him paint. It was wonderful. Sometimes people would drop in and we would gather in one of the studios, or if someone completed a wonderful painting, they would invite us to come see it. There was no jealousy among us. We all shared our work with each other freely.

Jeff Carreira: Did the artists in the group identify as part of a group, did they see themselves as a community?

Nicole Bigar: No, not at first, but then there was an essayist named Clement Greenberg who started writing about everyone. That’s how it became a group called the Abstract Expressionists.

Jeff Carreira: Your initial entry point into the group was through Willem de Kooning. Did you also meet Jackson Pollock?

Nicole Bigar: Yes, I met him briefly. I didn’t really know him. Recently I saw some of his early paintings, and he was doing some very traditional representational paintings then. At some point he suddenly had an urge to move, and to create a representation of swinging. His painting became like a dancing meditation. He would stand on top of his canvas with liquid paint that was really house paint, and he would listen to music and he would swing. It was a new way of painting that came straight from the heart.

Jeff Carreira: I read that before he would start a painting, he would sit for a long time just with the blank canvas. Is that true?

Nicole Bigar: It is true. A number of the painters did that at the time. Not everyone, but some for sure.

Jeff Carreira: What are they doing when they’re sitting in front of the canvas?

Nicole Bigar: It’s like a meditation. They empty their minds and wait until they feel some sort of urge to move. And they start, and then one color refers to another and they look for the vibrancy of the color. Sometimes it works and you get something wonderful, but not always. Sometimes it doesn’t work, and you just erase and start again.

Watching de Kooning paint was very beautiful. He had jars of color already prepared and, once he started, it was like watching a moving meditation. It was very beautiful.

Jeff Carreira: Were you all aware that you were doing something radically different, were you aware that you were doing a new kind of art?

Nicole Bigar: No, I don’t think so. I don’t think they cared.

Jeff Carreira: They were just in love with art and they were painting.

Nicole Bigar: Yes, they never expected to become famous.

Jeff Carreira: It sounds like you were exploring free and spontaneous expression – you weren’t doing representational painting, so you weren’t taking something that you had envisioned in your head and trying to reproduce it on a canvas – you were in a creative flowing process, allowing yourself to be guided by the process itself.

Nicole Bigar: Yes, sometimes it was as though somebody was holding your hand, like a higher power.

Jeff Carreira: Who do you think is painting when that happens?

Nicole Bigar: A higher order. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it is very exciting.

Jeff Carreira: This is why people devote their life to art, for those times when you feel yourself being moved by something bigger than you

Nicole Bigar: Yes. It’s very exciting.

Jeff Carreira: How long have you been painting?

Nicole Bigar: All my life, which has been a long life.

Jeff Carreira: And you’re still painting?

Nicole Bigar: Yes.

Jeff Carreira: Everyday?

Nicole Bigar: Yes.

Jeff Carreira: You’re a true artist, compelled to paint every day.

Nicole Bigar: I need to. Yes. It’s what makes me happy. If I didn’t paint, I don’t know what I’d do. I would be very lonely.

Jeff Carreira: What do you think that art brings to the world?

Nicole Bigar: In this very difficult world, I think art brings joy and happiness. This is one of the reasons why I paint. It’s a way of communicating, it’s an international language.