Nancy Goodheart Matthews

Nancy Goodheart Matthews is a ceramic sculptor from the U.S. Virgin Islands whose architectural carvings have graced buildings and public spaces around the world for over four decades. Trained at New York's School of Visual Arts and the San Francisco Art Institute, she specializes in glazed ceramic works applied to building exteriors — fountains, fireplaces, and facades. Her most celebrated work, the Mermaid Fountain in downtown Sarasota, earned a place on the Smithsonian Institution's National Registry of Public Art. Matthews believes art is "its own language" that speaks directly, without the intellect getting in the way.