Nikki McClure is a papercut artist based in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...

. She is the author and illustrator of a number of children's books and produces an annual calendar.

Biography

McClure grew up in

Kirkland, Washington Kirkland is a city in King County, Washington, United States. A suburb east of Seattle, its population was 92,175 in the 2020 U.S. census which made it the sixth largest city in the county and the twelfth largest in the state. The city's downto ...

. She moved to Olympia in 1986 to attend

The Evergreen State College The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a p ...

where she studied natural history and received B.S. and B.A. degrees in 1991. She would take walks in the forest, making up songs and singing them loudly; sometimes performing them at house shows. She sang onstage during the August 1991

International Pop Underground Convention The International Pop Underground Convention (or IPU) was a 1991 punk and alternative rock music festival in Olympia, Washington. The six-day convention centered on a series of performances at the Capitol Theater. Throughout August 20–25, ...

in Olympia, and one of her songs was included on the vinyl edition of the Convention's live album. McClure rented a studio near

K Records K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent mu ...

and experimented with

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...

s. Following her graduation, she took a job at the

Washington Department of Ecology The Washington State Department of Ecology (sometimes referred to simply as "Ecology") is the state of Washington's environmental regulatory agency. Created in February 1970, it was the first environmental regulation agency in the U.S. predating ...

. There she created her first children's book, ''Wetlands''. The 1992 publication by the Washington State Department of Ecology remained in print until 2015, and (as of 2017) remains available in PDF form. McClure creates papercuts using an

X-Acto X-Acto is a brand name for a variety of cutting tools and office products owned by Elmer's Products, Inc. Cutting tools include hobby and utility knives, saws, carving tools and many small-scale precision knives used for crafts and other applic ...

knife in a style partially inspired by

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

posters. Her early work involved creating t-shirts and album artwork for friends and Olympia bands such as

Sleater-Kinney Sleater-Kinney ( ) is an American rock band that formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1994. The band's current lineup features Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar) and Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), following the departure of longtime member J ...

. She worked with the indie record labels

Kill Rock Stars Kill Rock Stars is an independent record label founded in 1991 by Slim Moon and Tinuviel Sampson, and based in both Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The label has released a variety of work in different genres, but was originally known ...

and

and was associated with the

riot grrrl Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a subcultur ...

movement. Beginning in 1998, McClure began producing an annual calendar. She has authored and illustrated a number of children's books. McClure allows non-profits to use her work with permission and has created works for

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and gl ...

, Olykraut, and

Slow Food Nation Slow Food is an organization that promotes local food and traditional cooking. It was founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986 and has since spread worldwide. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and reg ...

. She also created a

manhole cover A manhole cover or maintenance hole cover is a removable plate forming the lid over the opening of a manhole, an opening large enough for a person to pass through that is used as an access point for an underground vault or pipe. It is designed to ...

design for Olympia's stormwater. Her work has been showcased in an exhibition called ''Nikki McClure: Cutting Her Own Path, 1996–2011'' at the

Museum of Contemporary Craft The Museum of Contemporary Craft based in Portland, Oregon was the oldest continuously-running craft institution on the west coast of the United States until its closing in 2016. Located in downtown Portland's Pearl District, the museum's missio ...

and the

Bellevue Arts Museum The Bellevue Arts Museum is a museum of contemporary visual art, craft, and design located in Bellevue, Washington, part of the greater Seattle metropolitan area. A nonprofit organization established in 1975, the Bellevue Arts Museum (BAM) provide ...

. Her children's book about

farmers' market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or o ...

s, ''To Market, To Market'', won the 2012 Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award.

Personal life

McClure has a son and lives in

with her partner Jay T. Scott. At the request of

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American musician who served as the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona ...

, McClure danced onstage at Nirvana's 1991 Live at the Paramount concert.

Works

*''Wetlands'' (1991) *''Apple'' (1996) *''How to Cook a Perfect Day'' (1997) *''Sent Out on the Tracks They Built,'' written by

Sarah Dougher Sarah Dougher (born September 15, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter, author, and teacher. Dougher began her musical career playing the Farfisa organ in the Portland, Oregon based band The Crabs, and later joined Cadallaca with Sleater-Ki ...

, (1998) *''Solitude'' (1998) *''The Great Chicken Escape'' (1998) *''Ten First Graders,'' monotype, (2000) *''Conmigo'' (2001) *''C2C'' (2001) *''This Yearning'' (2002) *''Welcome'' (2004) *''In Between'' (2004) *''The First 1000 Days'' (2006,

Sasquatch Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forest of North America. Many dubious articles have been offered in attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot, including Anecdotal evidence, ...

) *''Awake to Nap'' (2006, Sasquatch) *''Collect Raindrops'' (2007,

Abrams Abrams may refer to: * Abrams (surname), a list of notable people with the surname * '' Abrams v. United States'', 250 U.S. 616 (1919), U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding free speech during times of war * M1 Abrams, main battle tank * Abrams, W ...

) *''Things to Make and Do'' (2008, Sasquatch) *''All in a Day'' written by

Cynthia Rylant Cynthia Rylant (born June 6, 1954) is an American author and librarian. She has written more than 100 children's books, including works of fiction (picture books, short stories and novels), nonfiction, and poetry. Several of her books have won ...

, (2009, Abrams) *''Mama, Is It Summer Yet?'' (2010, Abrams) *''To Market, To Market'' (2011) *'' How To Be A Cat'' (2013) *''

Old Wooden Boat Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

'' (2022)

References

External links

Official websiteNorthwest Passages: Cynthia Rylant and Nikki McClure
(audio), ''Think Out Loud.'' OPB. January 21, 2010.
Video of McClure
at Evergreen State College as part of their Artist Lecture Series {{DEFAULTSORT:McClure, Nikki Living people American children's writers American women illustrators Artists from Washington (state) American children's book illustrators People from Kirkland, Washington People from Olympia, Washington Evergreen State College alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women