Not Just Ladies Who Lunch: Nina LiGreci
Getting to know some fabulous ladies who work in the arts!
Welcome to the Monday series Not Just Ladies Who Lunch. This will be an ongoing addition to the blog, meant to introduce you to some arts professionals. Their jobs will vary from freelance graphic designers to music composers, auction house specialists to cake decorators. Be sure to check back every Monday for a new profile. If you would like to be featured, please do send me a note! I am opened to suggestions as this piece evolves. Here goes week ten:
Meet Nina!
Nina and I met while attending the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. We travelled about the English countryside to freezing cold country houses, visited too many auction previews (not just for the free champagne) and ate way too many over priced burritos while attempting to get our Masters of Fine and Decorative Art [which both of us successfully achieved]. After the programme ended, Nina returned to the motherland, and now works in New York City. She’s recently written essays for Questroyal Fine Art, check them out here, here and here.
Nina achieved a BA from SUNY Potsdam, with an Art History major, and History & Wilderness Ed concentrations. She received her MA from Sotheby’s Institute of London in Fine and Decorative Arts in 2011. She currently works for Questroyal Fine Art, LLC located in New York City on Park Avenue.
1. What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Princess, Astronaut, Vet, Teacher, FBI Agent – a lot of things! I was interested in just about everything and definitely still am, although I love working in the art world.
2. What is the best piece of advice you were ever given?
It is sort of a cliche quote, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized for it anyway.” – Eleanor Roosevelt. This is significant to me perhaps coming from an incredibly ugly divorce and never seeming to be able to make everyone happy. So in the end, I may as well do my best to make myself happy, accomplish my dreams, and enjoy as much as life has to offer.
Also, another even more cliche quote, which I may enjoy more “To thine own self be true.” Hamlet, William Shakespeare. These sort of mean the same thing in my mind, but Shakespeare is perhaps more eloquent in his delivery, and was about 350 years earlier or so.
Oh also, another quote I thoroughly enjoy (in the same realm of the other two), “The question isn’t who is going to let me; its who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand.
3. Can you name your biggest success and/or failure in your career so far?
Umm well I have put my foot through a painting, taped over top of a pairing and thrown away a tapestry… take your pick on biggest failures! The key to most things is communication and being prepared. These things all happened during the height of our busy season where I am essentially doing more work than I can handle – like everyone else. Another thought on a failure is that I am not as engaged in the art world as I would like to be. My biggest success would be 1 – being employed in my field in the midst of the economic crisis in America (I think) and 2 -not getting myself fired for the above failures… I have an incredibly understanding and fantastic boss, Lou.
4. Name a tool (drawing instrument, technology, vehicle, etc) you can’t live without.
Swiss Army Knife. It’s the best. I certainly use mine regularly.
5. Do you have a mentor/Who would your dream mentor be?
My dream mentor would be Teddy Roosevelt. I am a huge fan of his contributions in history to the welfare of the underprivileged and his care in nature. He was a remarkable man and I think that I could have learned an immense amount from him. (Note to myself – I should read his bio).
Also, I have to say that I would love to have had some of the great 20th century authors as mentors, just based upon their work, which makes it seem like they have some amazing experiences and had a lot to offer – F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway.
That said, I would say the closest thing that I have for a mentor or mentors I should say are the women in my family. Mom, Sister, Aunts and Grandmother are all strong, fierce, independent women whom I admire and hope to possess some aspects of their personalities.
6. Tell us about your favourite picture.
To pick one favorite piece of art is such a challenge! I have endless thoughts on photography and sculpture but there are two paintings that stick out in my mind. The first I came across during my undergrad work at SUNY Potsdam while I was visiting my friend, Abel Philips’s apartment. It was a beautiful, expressive work of an evening sky over the desert – definitely something western in feel – oil on canvas and it was in a great frame.
The second painting I fell in love with is by Leon Kroll called Monhegan (pictured above). I came across this one when I first started working at the QR. It is of the Monhegan, Maine landscape. The colors are exquisitely blended, but create texture and depth as you glance out on the water off the coast. Its quite spectacular. If I ever came into an obscene amount of money, I would make the owner an offer he hopefully wouldn’t refuse!
