The Power of Travel

Although Nan Tull (1937-2023) has physically left the space, her spirit and passion live on through her art, which covers nearly every inch of wall space in Frank Wezniak’s Concord, Mass., apartment. As we speak,  we’re surrounded by the power of her practice and her life’s work – her 1999 encaustic painting on linen and canvas, “Swirl,” hangs next to the window and plays a game of call and response with the woods just outside. 

Tull’s forty-year career as a painter was dominated primarily by encaustic work that examined the complicated organic forms of the natural world. A self-proclaimed lover of molten beeswax, Tull used multiple layers that were poured or painted as the foundation for the rest of her process: carving, piling, heating to smooth or texturizing to create the finished product. In her later years of practice, Tull began incorporating the elements of ink and paper as she explored her family's past and present.  

Unlike many artists, Tull wasn’t born creating. She didn’t take her first art class or pursue art until her mid-twenties, after a first career as an educator, two cross-country moves, and becoming a mother. 

“During her time studying abroad in Paris her junior year at Wellesley, she was a viewer of art, not a participant,” shared Wezniak, her husband of 64 years. “She was very interested in art but wasn’t yet an artist.” Soon after, they met on a blind date and got married, and Nan became an elementary school teacher. 

But when Wezniak, a founding member of the Hewlett-Packard leadership team back when computers were still in startup mode, received a painting box as a corporate gift, it was Nan who picked it up on a whim one summer in Rockport, Mass., and began taking lessons with a local impressionist painter, Don Stone. 

What started as a hobby developed into a sixty-year interdisciplinary practice as a cornerstone member of Boston’s 249 A Street Artists Co-op in Fort Point. 

A few years later, she earned her Fourth Year Diploma from SMFA, the first of two degrees, commuting in from Concord and juggling her studies with the demands of raising three children. 

“Her first traveling fellowship was the one that really released her if you will,” shared Wezniak. “It showed her that she could be more flexible, how far she could push herself, and ultimately opened the door to the more contemporary style she used for the rest of her life.” 

During that first trip to China, she was again struck by the inspiration that had found her numerous times before, when she was removed from her usual day-to-day life and immersed herself in learning about entirely new mediums, relics, and landscapes. 

At that point, Tull was a full-time artist. She returned to SMFA, this time receiving her Fifth Year Certificate, while beginning to exhibit her work at galleries across Massachusetts. Now more comfortable with her own skills and with pushing boundaries, Tull jumped once more at the opportunity to experience a new environment, this time in Egypt. 

“Being able to see how artists were working in other places really opened up Nan’s creativity,” shared Wezniak. “She began to be able to paint in a more abstract way – according to her interpretation and understanding of things instead of just the way something looked.”

Formalizing her impact

Tull spent the next thirty years honing her craft, letting it evolve with her as she moved from one phase of life to the next. She held positions as a MacDowell Colony Fellow, solo exhibitions like her 2009 retrospective Nan Tull: Twenty-Five Years of Paintings and Drawings at the Danforth Museum of Art, and spent decades working alongside other SMFA alumni like Lorie Hamermesh, Studio Diploma ‘84, Traveling Scholar ‘85,  and Yu-Wen Wu, Studio Diploma ‘87 at the 249 A Street Artists Co-op.

Wezniak explained that he and Nan had discussed making their gift to SMFA for years. The rationale was simple: “Nan and I both benefited from scholarships as students, and Nan’s two travel grants at SMFA were particularly transformative for her. We want to give today’s alumni the same opportunities she was afforded – the chance to have their eyes opened as they pursue their art.”

With Wezniak and Tull’s support, Nan’s legacy as an artist will live on through the dozens of alumni who will have their own opportunity to find their inspiration in any corner of the globe at any time in their journey.

Historical image of Nan in her studio courtesy of Frank Wezniak.