Tracy Welling - Don't Mess with My Nest!

Artist: Tracy Welling
Materials: fine silver metal clay, sterling silver, hand stretched kozo fiber, felt, pearls, paint, copper
Size: 7
Dimensions: 4"(adjustable/flexible length), 2.25" x  2.25"

Artist Statement:
Represents the tensions between adornment, protection and defense. It displays the desire to shelter one’s family at all costs and the heavy burden that can manifest as. I would also like to acknowledge:

“Our capacity to recapture the naïve wonder we used to feel when we found a nest. This wonder is lasting, and today when we discover a nest it takes us back to our childhood or, rather to a childhood; to the childhoods we should have had. For not many of us have been endowed by life with the full measure of its cosmic implications”, [ The Poetics of Space, pg. 93.]

Artist Bio:
Tracy Welling is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in the St. Louis Metro area. She received her BFA in 2002 from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville with a focus in Metalsmithing and Drawing. Her art explores cultural constructs, linguistic connotations and relationships in order to question the stories we tell ourselves when personal and societal expectations go unmet. Myth and material create a visual dialogue in the work that discuss subjects that may not otherwise be articulated. Though sometimes ambiguous, the viewer is invited to participate and interpret according to their experience.
Currently, Tracy is teaching three dimensional design as an instructor of record and studying for her MFA at SIUE. She has shown internationally and nationally including in the exhibition Materials Soft and Hard at the Patterson-Appleton Arts Center in Denton Texas. Tracy was also awarded the Best in Fine Craft Award at the EAC Art Fair in Edwardsville, IL.



This ring is part of Battle of the Rings: Ring Smackdown 2021, an online exhibition and competition. Shop the entire collection HERE, view the matches HERE, and learn more HERE.