Women of Ohio

See a list of all the winners and commended artists here.

This week, we welcome Medhanit a.k.a Nia Nyabinghi, who is a self-taught artist from Columbus, OH with a focus on oil painting and digital illustration art. She tells us that “My focus with art has always been to inspire others to use creativity as a healing tool as I have for myself over the years.” Medhanit decided to create an artwork devoted to Columbus-based legend Nancy Wilson (1937-2018), the American singer known as “the girl with the honey coated voice”. Medhanit tells us more about Nancy below.

ABOUT THE PAINTING

As I sketched the first draft of this painting, I watched a documentary on Nancy Wilson to learn more about the Chillicothe-born, Columbus-based legend. I did not know a lot about Nancy Wilson prior to completing this project besides her most popular song: (You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am. I learned that she spent her childhood years singing in a church choir and continued to develop her voice as a teenager at West High School in Columbus, OH.

Her career spanned over five decades and her catalog is full of genre diversity, showcasing her vocal range and ability to sing jazz, blues, R&B, pop and soul. It also gives reason to the struggle critics faced trying to pin her style down. She was nicknamed many things such as ‘Sweet Nancy’, ‘The Baby’, ‘Fancy Miss Nancy’ and ‘the girl with the honey-coated voice’.

She called herself the ‘Song Stylist’ because of her ability to story tell any song. The unique storytelling singing makes her music very captivating. Nancy Wilson was extremely talented and ambitious, as shown with her awards. In her life she won three Grammy awards, an Emmy, Hollywood Walk of Fame star and was rewarded with a host position on a tv show after winning a talent contest at her high school.

Besides her many musical and entertaining accomplishments, Nancy Wilson spent time getting a degree in education and was a major figure in the Civil Rights Movement due to her involvement in the Selma to Montgomery Marches in 1965. She was a very remarkable woman from Ohio and the more I learned about her life the more inspired I was by her passion and ambition. It was an honor to paint this portrait of her and give more light to the amazing life she lived.

To see more of Medhanit’s art, please see their Instagram: @medhanitart.