Nicholas Alley was born on the west side of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1980.  He moved from a very old and mildly crappy house close to the city to the suburbs of Northern Kentucky with his parents and sister when he was 9 years old.  When he finished high school he began to attend Murray State University in southwestern Kentucky with the intentions of getting a degree in poetry, but he wasn’t very good at writing poetry.  He wasn’t very good at drawing, either, but one of his professors convinced him to stick with it despite his obvious shortcomings.  And he did.  In 2003, Nick graduated with a B.F.A. in drawing and printmaking, despite a rather slow progress in the skill department.  In the fall of 2003 Nick began his graduate studies at the University of Kansas where he studied printmaking as well as all of the tangents requisite in any young artists’ graduate program.  While in graduate school, Nick learned to sew, improved at drawing and making prints, dabbled awkwardly in the wood shop and worked in a bar.  During occasional lapses in his studies, Nick frequented a comedy club in Kansas City where he tried his hand at stand up, with mixed results. In the spring of 2006, Nick graduated with an M.F.A. in printmaking.  After graduation, Nick moved back to Kentucky where he is an adjunct professor teaching any class which he might be vaguely qualified to teach.  He teaches at both Murray State University and recently became a temporary Assistant Professor of Art at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN.  He continues to draw and make prints and lives with his girlfriend, Becky, their basset hound, Rose, and their cats, Penny and Marvin.