Medora was drawn to making art from the start. As a toddler, she was already revealing her talents—by drawing pictures on her parents' bedroom walls!

By age 15, she had identified portraiture as her passion. She sold her first drawing in 1944 at the age of 19.

By age 31, the attractive and bold young artist was the lone female pilot flying out of the Sunset Beach, California, airport and was beloved by the other pilots for her flying ability, her good looks, and for drawing their portraits. Medora always had a keen ability to see the "inner subject," and considers capturing this essence more valuable than creating a realistic illusion. She says her specialty is "intuitive portraiture," in which she envisions her subjects' past and future.

 

Medora is a happy fixture in the arts community of Grants Pass, Oregon, where she is treasured as both a bold individualist and a sage. She has been a role model and a mentor for painters and sculptors, having assisted in the building of others' careers as the owner and curator of the Art Mall of Southern Oregon. A recent arrival in Oregon, artist Randy Johnson said, "She embraced me and my abstract paintings, inspiring me to attempt to live life without limitations—then I found out that she treated me just like she treated everybody else." Cindy Kahoun, an established artist in Grants Pass, said, "Medora is the mother of the arts in southern Oregon—she's known for her fine paintings, of course, and also for her wisdom, her good humor, and for standing up for freedom of expression. She's been a shining example for many of us."

Medora has had an independent streak in her since she was a youngster. Teased ruthlessly by a bully named Wayne beginning in the third grade in Lynwood, California, she can vividly recall the scent of the burned orange peels she ground into his face in a definitive battle near a neighborhood trash heap. The other kids quit picking on her after the incident and she decided at the same time that "I was going to quit fighting ... and respect myself instead of caring what anyone called me."

Her childhood challenges came because of her size and younger age and partly due to her razor-sharp mental quickness. She started school early, then skipped both the second and the fourth grades and was a high school senior at age 15. Shortly out of high school in the early 1940s, she attended the Woodbury College of Art in Los Angeles and also studied physiognomy and life drawing at the Long Beach Academy of Art under Austrian professor Karl Seethaler.

Twice divorced and a single mother of two, Craig and Sylvia, Medora went where few women then dared to go: the field of aviation. While almost all the pilots of the time were men, Medora remembers thinking, "These pilots are not smarter than me. I can do this." She did, becoming the manager for owner Abe Pastor of the Sunset Beach Airport between Seal Beach and Huntington Beach in California, where she first flew in a KR-21 biplane and then learned to fly in a 65 horsepower single engine 7 AC Aeronca. (That same KR-21 biplane was used later on the Robert Cummings Show on television.) Her instructor was Donna Evans, an Amelia Ehrhardt look-a-like. Eventually, she performed acrobatics in a 95 horsepower single engine metal Luscombe, loaned to Medora by the manufacturer. At right, Medora is helped from the cockpit by the Fynn Twins, who gained fame in the early 1950s for suing the U.S. government over the handling of surplus aircraft.

Medora and her children found a happy home when she married Mel Nankervis in Orange County, California, in 1957. They lived in Garden Grove for 10 years before moving to Wimer, Oregon, where they owned and operated a cattle ranch. There, they expanded their family by "adopting" Mike, Jay and Wendy. Before Mel passed away in 1995 from an illness caused by radiation from atomic bomb testing in Nevada, he lovingly built Medora two homes and two art studios. Mel is celebrated in Medora's bold, primary-colored painting "And the winner is Nike, size 15." That painting won the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Best of Show award in 1992 and demonstrates Medora's ability to capture the essence of color, form and composition—along with humor and loving intimacy. See this painting on the Gallery page of this Web site.

It is difficult to imagine the carefully balanced, intricate wall display and the raucous explosion of color that is Medora's home and studio. It's a living gallery, a unique collection of her favorite artists' drawings, paintings and sculpture. And while her studio for large works is a separate outbuilding, a visitor will likely find a work-in-progress and a full watercolor palette on her dining room table.

Deeply spiritual, with a deft skill at acceptance and forgiveness of others, Medora has developed a set of powerful life skills: being nonjudgemental, finding a new viewpoint, then creating and revealing the crystalized beauty and emotion of the moment. "Quantum physics gave me new insight and courage to be true to my intuition ... and brought to me an understanding of my unique gifts," said Medora.

Medora is a published writer and by-lined newspaper columnist. She penned and illustrated "Medora's Meanderings" and "Artline" of the Rogue River Press in Rogue River, Oregon, and two columns in Grants Pass in the Rogue Review: "People Painter" and "Artline." Her "Artline" column also appeared in the Rogue River Sun previous to the Rogue Review.

In 2005, Medora began a bold new project. She started writing a book, Shades of Natural Light: My Life, about her experiences, philosophy, and the meaning of art. "My philosophy and my art are inseparable," she said. The book is now being edited and will be available at the end of 2008.

From Medora's artist's statement:
"The talent to create has been common to every civilization since the beginning of humankind. The arts are a supportive thread that weaves us together, in spite of the conflicts that divide ... Inspired artists search for the visible and the invisible, providing insight into the unknown, revealing the depth and meaning of human existence ... the arts is a unifying force rising above political, racial, religious and nationalistic differences ... Tribal beliefs die hard and divide, while art and spirit establish our interconnectedness ... My art begins with design that works as an abstraction. On top of that I paint loose realism, using color and energy, leaving detail to the imagination ... To grow is my goal."

You are likely to see Medora among the throngs of art lovers on the Grants Pass First Friday Art Walk, sponsored by the the City of Grants Pass on the first friday of each month. Look for the elegant silver-haired artist with the glitter in her eyes and a lightning smile.