Nancy Ann Patton
Born April 14, 1947, Fort Wayne, Indiana
My Life as I See it
Written in July, 2020 by Nancy Patton Wilson Harrison,
As I write this, I have just passed my 73rd birthday. From this perspective life seems to have passed quickly. I think of mine in phases. My childhood was happy and simple. I was close to my family and I loved my parents and siblings. My adolescence was confusing and I couldn’t find in my immediate environment the answers to questions that began to arise. One thing my older brother said to me at a time when I was very unhappy was helpful and it has stayed with me. He said “You are the only you in the universe and you are exactly the right you.” Or words to that affect. My young adulthood was troubled and difficult for many reasons but all these travails I later recognized as ultimately bringing me to maturity. That part was full of change and adventure. Now as an older person I would say this is perhaps the most comfortable moment of all.
One fact of my biography which I sometimes think about is the instability of place in my life. I lived in 7 houses before I graduated from high school and went to 7 different schools in that same time period. I believe this must have had some impact on my way of viewing the world.
Redwood City, 1949
Palo Alto, 1955
Going to church, Palo Alto 1959
Santa Cruz, the difficult years
Eugene, Oregon, the hippie years with a dog named Blue
Will Wilson and Nancy
Salmon Lake, 1988
Will with baby James and Emily, Rick with baby Darwin, Chandra and Farid, Grey Eagle Lodge, 1982
Will and Emily with their babies, 1982
Rick and Nancy, 1996
The traveling phase of life, 2000, Italy
The short but sweet gardening phase of life, Walnut Creek, 2001
Christmas 2001 at Rich's and Chris' home
January 2020, Saint Céneri-le-Gérei, France
William Henry Workman Wilson
Born May 11, 1949, Oakland, CA. Died March 25, 1984, Walnut Creek, CA
Father of Emily and James
Nancy Patton and Will Wilson on the evening before their wedding. Married March 18, 1978.
Richard Granville Harrison
Born November 12, 1949, New York, NY
On July15, 1996, Nancy married Richard Harrison, a long time friend. In 2002 Rick and Nancy bought a house in France and in 2004, they moved there permanently to run a Bed and Breakfast in a small town called Montmirail.
Maison Conti is the home that Nancy has lived in longer than any other in her life, by far.
Career
Our father took each of his oldest three children aside when they were teenagers and gave us his assessment on our future careers. In my case he suggested that I should be an artist. Happily, that is the direction I was interested in anyway. I graduated from Art Center College of Design in 1975 and worked as a graphic artist for my career. When I retired to France, I had a very nice studio for the first time, as well as an etching press, so I was able to pursue more personal art.
Monotype: The Red Dress
Etching: Morning Coffee
Reduction Print: Night Bird
Watercolor Drawing: Colette
Eco Print: Poppy
Cyanotype Print: Antique Photographic Technique
Single Parent
When Will died, Emily had just turned 5 and James was not yet 2. It would be 12 years before Nancy and Rick got married. Those years were both difficult and wonderful. The three of us had many adventures and travels together. We went on lots of road trips, especially to Ashland, Oregon, where we enjoyed the Shakespeare Festival, sometimes as many as three times a year. We went camping in the Sierra and loved to visit Nevada City. It is a time of life I look back upon with much nostalgia. My mother once said to me, somewhat incredulously “Nancy, you really seem to enjoy your children.” It was true.
