FULL ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Nichole Montgomery was born in Oregon in 1978 and raised within the Mount Hood wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. The isolation and terrain of that environment shaped her earliest relationship to pattern, repetition, and sustained observation. From early childhood, she engaged in constant drawing, beginning with instinctive doodling in the mid-1980s that gradually developed into complex systems of layered lines, texture, and mixed media. Entirely self-taught, her artistic formation emerged through independent exploration and prolonged mark-making.

Following study in Criminal Justice at Mount Hood Community College, Montgomery entered the United States Army in 1998. She served for five and a half years as an Automated Logistical Specialist focusing on the operation and management of the Army’s automated supply systems, including SARSS certifications which included the military post’s requisitions, status reporting, and accountable documentation were processed and reconciled. The position required sustained accuracy for saving millions of dollars supporting divisional logistic operations through precise data control, record management and coordination between subordinate units and higher chain of command positions. Her training included SQL-based systems, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint certification, NBC/CAM, Fire Marshal qualification, Field Sanitation, and Armorer certification overseas and stateside. As a certified armorer, her primary weapons systems included the M249, M16A2, Mk 19, and .50-Cal. During the end her service, she prepared awards documentation and disciplinary records for unit command, work requiring accuracy, consistency, and discretion.

Her assignments included service with DISCOM as part of the APC section within the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea, followed by service with an S&T Troop stateside. She concluded her military career with a Field Medic unit at Fort Carson, Colorado, within the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

Montgomery’s artistic lineage spans multiple generations. Her great-grandmother Dorothy Sibert, her grandmother Beverly Reinhart, and her mother Elisabeth Hopper were all self-taught multidisciplinary artists. Art functioned within the family as a grounding and stabilizing force, practiced for its own necessity and continuity. This impulse extends across generations and remains present within her own household.

During the early 1990s, Montgomery’s high school art instructor, Mr. Brown, who had also taught her mother during her school years, recognized the intensity and persistence of her line work and encouraged its development. Over time, her drawings shifted from sharply articulated forms toward increasingly curved and layered compositions. This evolution reflects years of accumulated attention and the integration of her NeuroLines process alongside therapeutic engagement following military service at the V.A. mental health care system. The curvature and density of the work developed through sustained use of drawing as a stabilizing discipline.

Beginning in 2007, Montgomery expanded her line-based practice into digital processes while continuing to work across mixed media, ink, paints and photography. She has presented work through solo, group, and juried exhibitions across Oklahoma and the surrounding region since that time. She became a full-time artist in 2024.

Her work has received recognition through numerous awards at the local, regional, and national levels, including first-place distinction at the national level of the National Veterans Creative Arts Competition, resulting in selection for the 2026 National Veterans Creative Arts Festival. A complete record of exhibitions and awards is maintained in her curriculum vitae.

Montgomery maintains her private studio, The Den, at Liggett Studio in the East Village Arts District of downtown Tulsa. The space supports sustained production and instruction and is available for private NeuroLines lessons and visits by appointment during weekday hours.

She is the mother of two grown children. Her son, Sean Montgomery, holds a degree in computer science with a concentration in machine learning, works at Tristar Glass in Oklahoma, and is a member of the Tulsa Men’s Rugby Club. Her daughter, Elisabeth Montgomery is a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, is a member of the National Honor Society, and is pursuing a degree in finance alongside formal musical study in college. She is also a member of the Tulsa Women’s Rugby Club.

Montgomery resides in South Tulsa with her partner, David Wilson, owner of the firm Wilson Investment Consulting LLC. Together, they engage in international travel with a close professional network rooted in finance and civic leadership. Their south Tulsa home also serves as a site for small, private gatherings that bring together artists, collectors, financial professionals, and community members for conversation, exhibition viewing, and cultural exchange. Alongside these efforts, they participate in volunteer work supporting local and regional community initiatives.

FULL ARTIST STATEMENT

My work began with pen and ink drawing long before I worked in digital media or photography. Drawing was the first medium I worked in, and it remained the foundation of my work as I later moved into digital work and photography, receiving recognition in each of those areas. Over time these separate mediums began to merge, and the work gradually evolved into multidisciplinary mixed media, combining drawing, painting, photography, and constructed surfaces into single pieces.

The work develops over time through layering, altering, and revisiting surfaces. Pieces are often worked in stages, set aside, and returned to later, sometimes after long periods. Earlier layers remain present while new images, materials, and structures are added, allowing each piece to carry its own history and development. Each work develops differently depending on what the piece becomes over time.

I have never followed a traditional path or tried to fit into a particular movement or style. I have always worked independently, developing my own methods and visual language over many years. I am an unconventional artist and an outsider by nature, and that independence is central to the work. I am not trying to fit into the art world. I am leaving something in it. When you see the work, I want there to be no question who made it. I want the work to reach a point where if you search for it, you only find me.