Barbara Nilausen-K:
What I enjoy about the creative process is when I really get involved with a piece and I lose all sense of time. It's like I'm in a different place. I think what I have is a gift that not everyone is given that gift, and I have an obligation to use that gift, to explore that gift, to train the gift.

I think that—maybe as crazy as this may sound—the closest to God that I get is when I'm creating. And faith is very important to me. It's a very motivating factor in my life. It's not an easy life. In fact, it's very hard. But the reward's the doing. Because most times, there's not the monetary reward. But it's the spiritual reward, and that's the most important thing.

Nancy Purington:
My work really is the marking of my own personal evolution—in the sense of balance that I achieve for my own life. And if I can share that through my paintings with anyone else, then I feel at least I've left behind something that is, in my opinion, valuable. It doesn't add to the chaos or disturbance of the world and I suppose, in that vein, somehow it's a spiritual gift. It's one that I cultivate, and I have tried to find peace for myself in my life through working it out through work.