Back to Full List Ode to Tingstad and Rumbel Eric Tingstad & Nancy Rumbel Mixed-Media Painting, Plaster, Paper, Musical Instruments and Parts Construction of Birch Wood by Tom Cox Valaree Cox, artist Grammy Award winners Eric Tingstad and Nancy Rumbel have performed, recorded and been touring together for over 22 years with 19 albums to their credit. Traveling to as many as 70 concert venues a year, they are friends who enjoy each other's company and truly love making music. Eric and Nancy began their collaboration in1985. Their debut album, The Gift, quickly became a holiday classic. The next 20 years saw countless reviews including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Billboard and many number one debuts on radio charts. In 1998, American Acoustic was honored as "Acoustic Instrumental Album of the Year." In 2000, they performed at Carnegie Hall. They received a Grammy Award for "Acoustic Garden" in 2003. Nancy grew up in San Antonio and continued her musical education at Northwestern University where she was introduced to new influences, styles and became intrigued by ethnomusicology which led to her to join the Paul Winter Consort. Eric grew up in Seattle and attended Western Washington University where he was trained in the Segovian classic guitar tradition. He was influences by performers such as Led Zeppelin, Ravi Shanker and Martin Denny. Allowing time to explore the cities they visit, Eric and Nancy frequently stop to explore art museums and antique stores. Historic preservation and the environment are just a couple of the many special interests Eric and Nancy share and lend their names to - all part of their love for nature, beauty, and creativity that takes center stage in their music. Valaree Cox writes: "I combine a variety of elements to create a representation of an idea or feeling with a great emphasis on layering. Starting with a support of wood and then plaster to create a viable surface texture, I have a place to start the process of placing elements of paper and paint that start to tell a story. I keep building from there. In my work there are often repeated symbols such as trees and houses. These can have great significance in general; yet can be isolated to an individual person or place. As simple as the home being an important part of life, love and comfort and the tree, the ultimate symbol of strength and growth. I call on nature to inspire me and I use the colors and subtleties of nature to help integrate one part of the piece to another. Every single component in one of my paintings has a very specific significance to me, but I love the viewer to find their own meaning or just an emotional feeling from each piece of artwork; one they can love to look at over and over again. My work on this piece "Ode to Tingstad and Rumbel", is filled with symbolism from beginning to end. It was great fun listening to each of their stories and at the same time keeping my mind from trying not to think about how I was going to portray that in a painting. Then hearing them together as well as their music gave me great inspiration. The first night I heard them in concert after I knew I wanted to do a piece about them, I knew I would have doors that open on the piece somewhere, somehow. Was it because music opens the mind, the heart, and the soul? I don't know, but that never wavered and the doors, with the guitar neck, ocarina and reeds are some of my favorite parts. There were so many ways to go with a piece about musicians that play such beautiful music, and I wanted to tell a story about these individual people which is so much more than only about their music. Try to figure out their past on each of the side panels! It was a challenge for me but great fun and a wonderful and fulfilling artistic, as well as personal experience!"