VISIONS
of the Flying Artist

a memoir by
Medora Nankervis,
was released

Valentine's Day
Feb. 14, 2009

with a book signing at the
Grants Pass
Museum of Art

Purchase a book

To read Bill Varble's review of the book in the Medford Mail Tribune, 2-20-09:
Visions of the Flying Artist: Artist and activist Medora Nankervis pens a memoir

From the back cover of Visions:
Born to a genius engineer-machinist in Southern California in 1925, Medora Nankervis started expressing herself through art as a toddler (Crayola the medium, her parents' walls the surface) and started maturing as an artist in her 20s. In the 1950s she was among the few female pilots and flight instructors flying out of the Los Angeles/Orange County area to short-hop destinations like Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, Tijuana, and Ensenada. She escaped death-by-airplane twice: once due to her quick thinking when her plane's engine died over the Grapevine; and once when her husband failed in a murder-suicide attempt.

Always led by her dreams, Medora forged a successful career as a painter, a mentor, a political activist, and finally as a patron of the arts in and around the Rogue Valley of southern Oregon. She was a founding member of the Grants Pass Museum of Art. In 2006, she was proclaimed by Mayor Len Holzinger of Grants Pass "a queen of the arts." Now in her 80s, Medora continues to be a prolific painter. In 2007, a new series of 20 paintings, plus two retrospective series, went on exhibit at the GPMA in her one-person show, Three Series.

Last Exhibition:
Three Series
Grants Pass Museum of Art
Grants Pass, Oregon
February 27–March 30, 2007