Decades ago I came to Colorado for a short term interior design project. I drove across country in my '88 Honda with my dog Lily in tow. The vision of crossing the state line and seeing the terrain change opening before me is a snapshot with a permanent place in my memory. I was in awe. Within several hours I was driving down Rabbit Ears Pass overlooking Catamount Lake and the meandering Yampa River with the Flat Tops in the distance. It was July 7th, 1999, midday, when I arrived in Steamboat Springs. My intention was to finish my project then move to New York City. But 24 years later I'm still here! I eventually followed my husband to the Roaring Fork Valley and made a second home with him just over the ridge of the inconceivably beautiful Glenwood Canyon in a spot where we are lucky enough to have views of Mt. Sopris.  

Colorado poked at me, reminding me of my feral youth spending hours in the woods with my siblings and other neighborhood kids, returning home at dusk. I felt that way here. I went outside. I asked things from my body, from my hands that hadn't occurred to me in my manicured young adult east coast life. I was home. I had new colors here and a new set of life experiences. I was designing homes and making art. I learned to ski, bringing me into the back country and around the globe. I took up running and ran with mountainous views and from bears and moose! In 2011 I started a journey putting myself back into my first real career of textile design. New technology allowed me to create digital textiles from my catalogue of fine art. What was at first a dipping of my toe into shallow waters has now become a dive into the deep. It is my passion and my business. 

As an artist I am self taught in the mediums of acrylic and graphite. When I made the jump to digital textile design I had to teach myself a new set of skills all over again. Back-dooring this new medium was an experiment in applying the techniques I used in fine art, mural painting, and interior finishes to translate my signature layering techniques to a digital format. These bespoke textiles are the fulcrum for a different kind of apparel bucking against what is typically asked of a ski shirt or yoga leggings. Defiance pieces double as activewear and fashion. 

From a young age it has been my calling to decorate the world with pattern.

You are my next project. 

NANCY JEFFREY, Founder of Defiance Clothing Company