Nichole Speciale spent the majority of her academic life working part-time in preservation and conservation departments, while developing herself as an artist. The work she produces is a direct result of a conservation mindset-- to question an object's structural integrity in order to make a decision that will ensure its longevity. This way of thinking arises, in her endeavor to push painting past the bounds of its two-dimensional illusory surface by using materials that break this plane. Within these structural queries, she is also exploring the ideas of internal reflection, mimicry, and constellation as it functions restricted to the face of a painting or drawing.
She is enamored with visual depictions of the macro- and micro-universe made both by hand and by lens, which surface in her work and source material. Lately, she has been working from popularized astronomical material, particularly that of NASA and Carl Sagan, challenging its place within formal materiality and its relation to ornament.
Nichole completed her MFA at University of California, San Diego in 2014 and her BA at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA in 2009. She works with her partner in a collaboration called, C+N projects and also collaborates with flutist Rachel Beetz. All of this she operates from San Diego.