Nancy Chakrin | Nancy Chakrin

Visionary | Mentor | Entrepreneur | Author | Cultural Creative

EDUCATION

BS Art Education / Social Sciences Minor

University of Minnesota, MN

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

Philadelphia, PA

Cambridge Technical School (Technical Illustration); Cambridge, England

Albert Sanski Art Center - Atelier School

Haddonfield, NJ

Minnetonka Center of the Arts Minnetonka, MN

Nancy lives her life purpose with passion, giving and sharing her artistic and organizational talents to improve people’s lives around the world.

AWARDS / HIGHLIGHTS

2022 Publication of the book Breath Is Life: Taking In and Letting Go, How to Live Well, Love Well, BE Well by Laurie Ellis-Young and George T. Ellis, PsyD.

2021 Pre-launch for the book Breath Is Life

by Laurie Ellis-Young and George T. Ellis, PsyD.

2020 BreathLogic created 9 breath tutorials during the COVID pandemic to help teach breathing practices.

2019 International Integrative Nursing Symposium - Poster Session celebrating healing attributes of "Yoga ON and OFF the Wall" – Galway, Ireland (over 35)

2018 World Kindness USA Launch Presentation – Long Beach, CA

2017 AARP Minnesota /Pollen Midwest’s

“50 Over 50 Award” in Arts & Culture for shattering myths about aging & writing her own rules

2015 "Crossroads Alaska: Where Photography & Philanthropy Meet "

— Sante Fe Workshops in Sitka, Alaska

2012-2013 University of Minnesota Buckman Fellowship for Leadership in Philanthropy & launch non-profit 501C3

2011 Midwest Independent Publishers Association - 1st Place– Arts Category- GOLD Medal FRIENDSHIP: The Art of the Practice, Tristan Publishing

2010 Book Launch FRIENDSHIP: The Art of the Practice and initial exhibits "Yoga ON and OFF the Wall"

2004 - USA Track & Field Adirondack: Freihofer 5K Run for Women 25th Anniversary Oil / Posters Commission

1980 - 1996 several Awards of Excellence & Gold Medals for Brochure, Stationery, Catalog Design & Print: NRC Graphics LLC

Nancy is a joyful, creative and resourceful Minneapolis artist who has reinvented her life several times in award-winning careers in painting, graphic design, videography, print brokering, book publishing and photography.

A Minnesota native, Nancy lived in Cambridge, England for a year after college. For over 25 years she lived on the East Coast of the United States near Philadelphia and Upstate New York. In 1996, Nancy returned to Minnesota.

Nancy comes from a family of artists – including her uncle William Saltzman, a distinguished multi-media artist.

While healing from breast cancer in 2000, Nancy cultivated an expanded interest in the arts and began to prolifically create landscape and waterscape oil paintings along with producing Giclees and exhibiting in galleries. Nancy’s painting style was influenced by the Hudson River School, a mid-19th century American art movement featuring radiant, majestic, peaceful landscapes.

Nancy exhibits regularly in educational institutions and health and wellness centers throughout the Midwest—and wherever else she may be invited! Her artwork is collected internationally and found in corporate collections.

With great exuberance, Nancy’s photography assignments capture images of luminaries of our time—with compassion, joy, grace and humor. Polar explorer Ann Bancroft, CNN’s David Gergen and Van Jones, Drs. Andrew Weil and Deepak Chopra, and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama are just a few of those blessed by Nancy’s keen eye and camera lens.

True to character, Nancy convinced world-renowned scientist/teacher and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) founder Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD to be photographed by her in a Minnesota Gopher hat (with braids!).

As Co-Founder of BreathLogic, Nancy has juggled her many roles to include video production for the COVID tutorials and Zoom series entitled: 21 Days to Change Your Breath & Change Your Life. She was also production coordinator and photography manager for the book Breath Is Life as well as coordinator of the pre-launch for the book.