Artist's Statement

My work is inspired by natural wonders and ecological processes that combine to give us biodiversity. I am concerned with the role that humans have in sustaining or destroying our biodiversity. My steel sculpture utilizes lines that combine together to make form relating to systems and networks in nature such as the underground mycelium fungi that connect plants and trees together. Studying and teaching biomimicry has led me to discover a myriad of remarkable functions in the natural world which continue to energize me.

Observing how rivers cut through land and seeing the types of curves the water forges is another source of inspiration. From above, rivers appear to be veins in the earth carrying life blood. Networks of lines symbolize wireframe skeletal structure at its most minimal to veins flowing through our bodies to roots carrying nutrients to trees.

My sculptures begin with straight, round steel rods of varying thicknesses. The steel is bent, curved and welded in an entirely intuitive process to build form using the primal elements of heat and fire from an oxy-acetylene torch. The heating, bending and welding process is repeated until the form is complete and there appears to be no beginning or end to the lines. The resulting pieces appear light and organic but they have the weight of steel.

Resume and Selected Bibliography

Bio

Rebecca Welz’s sculptures have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the United States, including the June Kelly Gallery and the Grace Borgenicht Gallery in New York City; the Oakland Museum in California; the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, New York; the Butters Gallery in Portland, Oregon; the SciArt Center in Easton, Pennsylvania; the Cherrystone Gallery in Wellfleet, Massachusetts; and Sculpturesite Gallery, San Francisco.  In addition, her work is in private and corporate collections, including those of Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Merck, Prudential Life Insurance Corporation, Sabre Corporation, and the William Kaufman Corporation.