Terese Nielsen

From MTG Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Terese Nielsen
Terese Nielsen
General Information
Born Aurora, Nebraska, 1966
Status Inactive: Alliances to Modern Horizons
Style Gouache, layered acrylic, and oils
Education/ Training BFA, Art Center College of Design
Scryfall Statistics

Terese Nielsen (born 1966 in Aurora, Nebraska as Terese Spencer) is a former Magic: The Gathering artist who began illustrating cards during Alliances.

Around 2018, members of the Magic community began criticizing Nielsen's political views. Observers noted that she and her then-wife frequently engaged with and supported far-right social media accounts.[1] On June 18, 2020, Doug Beyer stated that Wizards of the Coast had not commissioned new art from Nielsen "in quite a while". Wizards has not made a further statement regarding their relationship with Nielsen.[2] Wizards has not printed new artwork by Nielsen since 2019, and last reprinted one of her artworks in 2020.

Education and art style

Nielsen received an associate's degree from Rick's College in Idaho. In 1991, she completed a bachelor's degree in fine arts at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.[3] She worked extensively with gouache during her last year of art school, and used those pieces in her portfolio. As of 2013, she often worked with oil paints over a layer of colored pencil and acrylic. She prefers physical media over digital, but sometimes uses digital tools to alter her sketches before printing them and painting over the print.[4][5]

Nielsen is interested in sacred geometry, and incorporates "diagrammatical" elements into her artwork.[6] Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha is her "all-time hero". She credits the Pre-Raphaelite artists for her inspiration and color preferences.[7]

Work for Wizards of the Coast

Nielsen's prompt for Force of Will described a red card, rather than blue, explaining its atypical art.

Nielsen was hired by art director Sue Ann Harkey, whose first assignment for Nielsen was Force of Will. Nielsen later recalled that the art direction at the time was loose, and that she was told to "make some kind of bad, cool-looking red magic shaman" for a "Red Magic" card, and "just do whatever you want" for the rest of the art.[6] However, R&D noted in an interview that they believed that Force of Will was a blue card from its inception, and attributed the confusion to a mistake by someone responsible for either art or continuity.[4] Force of Will is the card she is most often asked to sign or alter.[5][8]

Chesley Award-nominated artwork of Ertai.

In 1999, Nielsen was nominated for a Chesley Award for Best Gaming-Related Illustration for her illustration of Ertai, Wizard Adept.[9]

Termination

Terese Nielsen came under scrutiny in 2018 for her political views, including support for the QAnon conspiracy theory and the promulgation of trans-exclusionary radical feminist viewpoints. In April 2019, she responded on Twitter and compared her treatment from the Magic community to being rejected by her Mormon family.[1] Two months later, she gifted signed artwork to the far-right YouTube channel, Edge of Wonder.

During the Jumpstart preview season, Doug Beyer confirmed Wizards had not commissioned new art from Terese Nielsen, and that the then-upcoming Zendikar Rising would be the last set with her art reprinted. This was the first and only official acknowledgment of the controversy.[2] The reprint described by Beyer was not in Zendikar Rising itself; it was Eternal Witness on The List. Her last-printed new artwork for Wizards was Echo of Eons in the 2019 set Modern Horizons.

When Mystery Booster was reprinted in 2021, 24 cards were removed from the set. In the first print run, each of those cards had been printed with artwork by either Terese Nielsen or another disgraced artist, Noah Bradley.[10]

Personal life

The youths shown on Samite Elder are Terese's four children.[4]

During the 1990s, Terese married and then divorced Mirage-era artist Cliff Nielsen. She later married Dawn Rickabaugh. Dawn and the couple's children have posed as references for Terese's artworks.[6][11] They divorced in 2019, months before Nielsen's termination by Wizards. As of 2024, Nielsen lives in Carson City, Nevada.[12]

Between 2016 and 2018, Nielsen made three visits to Costa Rica to engage in spiritual ceremonies involving ayahuasca. She credits those trips with granting her an expanded perception of existence. She expresses an interest in tarot, Buddhist meditation, and the mysticism of the Essenes, a Jewish sect that dissolved in the early years of the Common Era.[13]

Nielsen's brother, Ron Spencer, remains an active Magic artist.

Other work

Nielsen created packaging artwork for Wizards' Star Wars gaming miniatures.[14][7] She has provided artwork for franchises including Xena: Warrior Princess, and covers for Dragon magazine and various fantasy and science fiction authors.[3] She was awarded the 2002 Jack Gaughan Award for her science fiction illustrations.[15]

Gallery

External links

References

  1. ↑ a b Spencer Baculi (Apr 9, 2019). "Magic: The Gathering Artist Terese Nielsen Responds to Fan Accusations of Bigotry and Facism"
  2. ↑ a b Wizards Ends Their Relationship with Terese Nielsen. Hipsters of the Coast (2020-06-19). Retrieved on 2020-07-20.
  3. ↑ a b SFE: Nielsen, Terese (12 September 2022). Archived from the original on February 19, 2025.
  4. ↑ a b c d Toby Wachter (April 24, 2002). "Behind the Canvas: Terese Nielsen". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-10-21.
  5. ↑ a b Artist Spotlight Interview: Terese Nielsen. Star City Games (March 20, 2013).
  6. ↑ a b c KRCU Public Radio. "An Interview With Artist Terese Nielsen". Archived from the original on Dec 5, 2022.
  7. ↑ a b Pete Vilmur. "War Nouveau: The Art of Terese Nielsen". StarWars.com. Archived from the original on March 28, 2010.
  8. ↑ Terese Nielsen. "Terese Nielsen's Typepad". Typepad. Retrieved on 2010-09-07.
  9. ↑ "Chesley Award nominations". Science Fiction Chronicle. 20 (5): 5. April–May 1999.
  10. ↑ Wizards of the Coast (June 21, 2021). "Mystery Booster Convention Edition Returns With In-Store Events". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-06-21.
  11. ↑ Travis Allen on X (Aug 17, 2018)
  12. ↑ Contact • Terese Nielsen Art. Archived from the original on April 25, 2025.
  13. ↑ Meet Terese Nielsen • Visionary Artist. Archived from the original on April 25, 2025.
  14. ↑ Pete Vilmur (2010-01-26). "Terese Nielsen Sheds Light on "The Dark Times" Artwork". StarWars.com. Archived from the original on August 15, 2011.
  15. ↑ Jack Gaughan Award. Archived from the original on February 3, 2025.
Retrieved from "https://mtg.wiki/index.php?title=Terese_Nielsen&oldid=487918"