Nancy Raen-Mendez was born in Boston, MA. She received a BFA and an MAE from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and an MFA from the University of Cincinnati. Nancy Raen-Mendez currently lives and works in Evansville, Indiana. Her artwork stems from her interest in social and political relationships as well as environmental concerns. She is interested in experimenting with technique and often uses indirect processes. Conceptually, her current work explores the ideas of forming and separating, boundaries and edges, and inclusion and exclusion. Her artwork also looks at connections people make from their intimate friendships to more formalized global communities and how we interface with one another and the natural environment. The imagery used in her work meanders into the psychology of safety, belonging, as well as fears. There are perceptual elements in her work but her work is prone to also traverse across the edges of solid boundaries into abstraction.