BIO

I was born in Wyoming and raised in Pawling, a small town in New York’s Dutchess County, almost the last stop on the commuter rail to NYC. In high school, I took summer and weekend art classes at Cooper Union in Manhattan. I was a printmaking major at the Hartford Art School and studied for 6 months at the  Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.  I earned a Masters in Art Education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Luckily, my parents encouraged and supported me while I did what I loved. I will forever be grateful for this. I now live with my family in Hanover, New Hampshire.

I am a founding board member of the tree planting non-profit Tree Northampton, Inc., and consider this volunteer work an important part of my life. I love planting trees and became a Massachusetts Certified Arborist in 2019.

I like to think of my paintings as questions. Most often, the question is why are we destroying the planet, hastening our demise, and ensuring the extinction of thousands of species? 

Most recently, I’ve started a series of watercolor maps of cities that are predicted to have the most catastrophic flooding due to climate change. They are vibrant and beautiful and I think of them as tributes to what was, a time capsule of sorts as the effects of climate change unfold around us, reshaping coastlines and neighborhoods.

I’ve also been thinking about adaptation to climate change and using art as a way to help prepare people for the future. A friend recently told me that the future of design will be teaching people how to survive the new normal. I suppose time will tell if this comes to be true, but I’ve always been interested in art that serves a purpose.

EDUCATION

BFA, Printmaking, Hartford Art School

MA, Art Education, University of Massachusetts

CLIENTS + PROJECTS (DESIGN + ILLUSTRATION)

Tree Northampton, Inc.

Mount Holyoke College, Students of Color Committee

Valley Women’s March

Mount Holyoke College, Fearless First

Eversource Energy – Pollinator Plants

Estoy Aqui, LLC

MarthaSweezy.com

Friends of Northampton Trails

Beaver Brook Greenway

The Resistance Center for Peace and Justice

Rachel Maiore for City Council

FIND ME ON…

Turning Art: https://www.turningart.com/artist/alicia-purdy

Instagram: alicia_purdy