South Boston Artist: Dominique Nelson

By Carol Masshardt

Dominique Nelson, can turn an ordinary, imperfect, sun backed sidewalk into a stunning work of art. A twenty-five-year-old, life- long South Boston resident, she is an accomplished artist and teacher with a unique honesty and joy in who she is. The chalk drawings outside her East Broadway home near “H” are only the most obvious of the creations. She began drawing when her wise mother thought she needed to express more, and later at Boston Arts Academy and Mass. College of Art. If you know her mother, Luanne Litif, you will hear unmitigated, well-deserved pride and respect for a talented young woman who didn’t always have an easy course.

Dominique is currently the Foundations Director at Artists for Humanity, where she teaches while also developing her own art projects.

“It took me awhile to find my place,” she said. Although she is truly Boston through all of her education from the Perry School to Mass. Art, she had to work at finding the best match in friends and opportunity.

“I applied to the Boston Arts Academy for violin, but I think performing made me nervous, and I wasn’t accepted, but I was for art! I think I had a steadier hand for art. I also had to find friends in South Boston and did by branching out and connecting with friends in different areas, so I could be seen for who I was.”

“I didn’t think I would be good enough to be an artist, but I came to realize I had a talent and just kept working at it. I started as a printmaker, and then went into multi-media. Seeing how different mediums can come together to create something new is what I love,” she said.

Art is more than creating in a studio for Dominique Nelson, though she takes great joy in that. It is about people and ideas and seeing others develop.

“I love gatherings, gatherings of different people and minds and talents. Maybe because I didn’t have it as naturally growing up, I have created it now and it is one of the things that draws me to Artists for Humanity. It gives kids the chance to develop their art and confidence and meet adult artis from all over the city. When I watch them, I also learn.”

As with many artists, pathways can be complicated. Dominique is unsure about focusing more on her own art, or art education, or a master’s degree, and then balancing a love of art with marketing and exhibiting. What she does know is that she is committed to art and Boston, and that her future will include both. Though she would be a certain success anywhere, there I something compelling to her about the streets and signs and people of this complex city.

“I could go somewhere else and learn different things, and other places probably could be easier, but my eye is always on the art side of this city. Right now, my political art is quieter, and I am at work on process, materials and seeing what I see. With the kids I see that they have “voice’ but are also vulnerable. They learn that they don’t have to know what they’re doing to create something good.”

Dominique Nelson has many people to thank, especially but not only, her mother, and brother, Jesse Cox, and teachers, Barrington Edwards, Randy Garber, and Catrina Coelho.

“Be sure to write about how proud we are of her,” said a neighbor several generations older passing by as we sat on Dominique’s stoop and talked about art. It is no small honor than to envision and create better things for the very streets on which you walk. Dominique Nelson is bound to contribute in more ways than perhaps even she can see.