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    Jean by Madeleine Dunnigan

    ByNomadic Composure

    My summer was bookended by Madeleine Dunnigan’s debut novel, Jean. I started Jean just as the spring was coming to a close—when it was finally warm enough to read outdoors in the sunshine—and I slowly worked my way from start to finish whenever the mood felt right. My careful, somewhat laissez-faire approach towards reading this book has resulted in a genuine fondness for this text. It feels as though it was a close companion through the hot summer days. Jean is a novel reminiscent of the summertime; it is a book about youth, self-discovery, shame,…

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Welcome to the Art Hub

Studying art is a wonderful way to learn more about yourself and the things that make you curious. As you begin researching, you’ll start to notice the things that draw you in, like a bee to pollen, and you slowly grow a library of ideas, artists, and aesthetics that are unique to your tastes as an individual. Use these articles to develop your personal taste, to grow as an artist, for inspiration, or for education.

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“But for us the road unfurls itself, we don’t stop walking, we know there is far to go. ”
Denise Levertov

Art History

Explore articles about different historical figures in the art world; analyses on specific paintings; and essays on the intersection between art and literature.

Ceramics, Drawing, and Painting

Our site puts a particular focus on ceramics, drawing, and painting because they are the artforms we love most here at NC. However, you can also find articles about a range of other creative mediums like collage, photography, and even writing.

Resources

If you’re looking for help finding art classes, resources to start a creative project, or tools to inspire your work, you’ve come to the right place.

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Easy ways to make art a habit, a hobby, or a skill.

One of the most important aspects of learning a new creative medium is developing a routine that works for you and sticking to it. Many of us have busy schedules and find it difficult to create long lasting, consistent habits. But making the time for your interests can prove fruitful, even in small doses. If you are learning to paint, for example, and only have time on Saturdays and Sundays for two hours, that is SO much better than not painting at all. Over the course of a year, if you paint (or work on any craft) for 4 hours over the weekend, you’ll have spent almost 200 hours developing your skills by the end of the year. The time is going to pass anyway, why not spend it on something important and unique to you?

Even if you don’t create art, studying art is a wonderful way to learn more about yourself and the things that you like. As you begin researching, you’ll start to notice the things that draw you in, like a bee to pollen, and you slowly grow a library of ideas, artists, and aesthetics that are unique to your tastes as an individual. These ideas can be used to help you self fashion your public image, to better understand and connect with yourself, or to deepen your understanding of the world. Many topics in art and art history have had significant impacts on the world, media, and us as individuals. Doing the work to research the things that interest us most helps us to gain knowledge about the world and our identities. Research can deepen our perspectives on modern society, and the further back we explore, the more patterns we begin to recognize in ourselves and in the world.

One of the most exciting parts about studying art is how it intersects with so many other academic and social fields. When researching, you’ll begin to historicize artworks, ideas, and themes, and this can help you to better comprehend history as a whole. The further you research a certain topic, the more you’ll also learn about the impact things like politics, law, social norms, and even things like fashion and language have had on the development of an artwork or genre. As you go on, you’ll develop a sort of web of information that spans across time periods and movements, and this can make it easier to chronologically, historically, and academically locate new topics that interest you.

Maybe you don’t ever intend to take a ceramics class, or to learn painting, or to write a paper about a particular public figure, genre, or artistic movement. As long as you follow the threads that are interesting to you, as long as you stay curious, research for the sake of research can still be a valuable way to enrich your life, to engage with media that is truly meaningful for you, and to spend more time moving your life and imagination in a direction that is unique and desirable to you.

Comming Soon

The first issue of NC Magazine…

On March 1st, 2026, the first issue of Nomadic Composure Magazine will be available here on the site. Our free of charge digital magazine offers unique posts not found on the site. The magazine offers an enjoyable, immersive reading space to help you feel inspired, to learn something new, or to to simply enjoy the scenery of an aesthetic reading experience.