Web content specialist also an up-and-coming artist

Take heart, parents of aspiring artists – a fine arts degree isn’t the ticket to a life of perennial rejection, hunger and unemployment.

You can ask Nic Courdy. The 26-year-old web content specialist in UIT’s University Support Services (USS) is already an artist of international acclaim. In fact, the last piece he sold was at auction in Dubai.

Courdy’s brand of art is a confluence of old masters and new artists, a hybrid of traditional and abstract. He appropriates images from the public domain, which means they've been endowed by their creators for public use, free of intellectual property laws.

“I think a piece can be successful if I can use historical imagery to make a new narrative that looks contemporary,” he said.

Courdy received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the U in 2013, where he studied in traditional media and “kind of disregarded the whole digital thing.” Today, however, the computer is his go-to art tool.

“I like the idea of painting and drawing, but lately when I make something, I go to the computer. I go to video,” he said. “The process is a lot more in tune with me.”

Besides art, which he tries to dedicate time to every day, Courdy enjoys his work at the University. Within USS, his field is content management and usability, specifically website design, deployment, support and training.

“I appreciate the structure of it and having to remember so many little things, the attention to detail needed to make sure the (web) editors have all they need,” Courdy said.

His supervisor, USS Content and Usability Manager Barb Iannucci, says Courdy “has been a fantastic addition to our team.”

"He is extremely friendly, professional, and committed to helping us improve the value of our services to the University," Iannucci said.

Outside of the University, Courdy is on the tail end of a one-year residency at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA).

While the internet has made it so that artists no longer depend on the gallery walk, Courdy enjoys traveling and having face time with prospective buyers. His art adventures have taken him to Seoul, Bangkok, Amman, Dubai/Abu Dhabi, London, Amsterdam and New York City. These days, the Sandy native satisfies his wanderlust with more modest excursions. Later this month, for instance, he plans to visit the Joy Gallery in San Francisco, which is featuring his work as part of a collage-themed exhibit.

 

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