Nolan Bellavance
Parsons
What are you currently up to?
Working on a new collection in collaboration with my best friend and fellow Parsons graduate, Ava Hama. Doing some freelance gigs and creative projects to pay the bills in the meantime and constantly looking for more.
Who are 3 artists past or present who inspire you?
Marina Abramović has inspired me personally rather than professionally or creatively for years, there isn’t another human soul that I appreciate more than hers, I sat for 86 minutes with her at the MOMA during The Artist is Present and have never been the same since.
Robert Irwin introduced me to the power of perception and it is a tool that I consider to be at the forefront of how I look for inspiration and how I create. I had the honor of meeting him last year and it was one of the highlights of my life.
John Baldessari is a huge point of reference for the new collection. His work and presence is something that I find simultaneously humorous and unsettling.
Where do you hope to be 3 years from now?
My three year plan is to own a motorcycle and to be showing during NYFW, well on my way to being incorporated into the CFDA.
If you could have lived in another time period, which one and why?
I love that I live in the 21st century because I have the past as a constant point of reference, I wouldn’t change a thing about that.
What has been the most unexpected thing about NYC?
The humid summers and the blessing that is the garment district.
Props
Designer of the Year nominee at Parsons for Senior thesis collection
CFDA Student Award in 2011
GAP Inc Award and Scholarship and paid internship in 2011
Invited by SAGA Furs to workshop and training course in Denmark
Senior thesis collection co-sponsored by SAGA Furs and Hong Kong Fur Federation
Parsons representative at SAGA Furs trade show and gala in Hong Kong in 2012
