Meg Hershey
she/they
Cookeville, Tennessee, USA
"Meg Hershey is a metalsmith and self-taught jewelry artist living in Tennessee among the hills and hollers of Appalachia where she lives with her husband, two kids, and so many chickens. She has a BS in Criminal Justice with a Minor in Psychology and a Certificate of Completion from the Appalachian Center for Craft for a workshop titled Working With Steel in Jewelry. She has never exhibited her work before and is incredibly excited for the opportunity to do so and continue in this new chapter of her creative endeavors. When they aren't busy creating or working as an early childhood educator, Meg loves to cook, try new meals, go thrifting, or sit in a creek."
“I'm a metalsmith and jewelry artist who draws inspiration from the world around me. Whether it's the water-worn patterns left in the sand at the bottom of the creek or the plants and wildflowers popping up in the cracks of the sidewalk, I tend to find beauty everywhere I look. Through my work I seek to highlight that beauty by utilizing stones, crystals, and metals in varying sequences and forms. My goals in my work are to develop the skills needed to create everything I come up with.”
How does your work relate to the theme of flourish(ing)?
“When I hear the word flourish my mind immediately turns to flora. I think of the word thriving and imagine seas of wildflowers blooming regardless of their growing conditions. I love themes of duality, and in making these earrings I wanted to showcase the duality of wildflowers through the materials used to make them. The sterling silver pistil/stem represents the delicate pieces of the flower that wilt when handled, whereas the mild steel petals represent the resilience of wild plants in general who want nothing more than to grow where they are planted and to spread seeds which continue their growth for seasons to come."
NYCJW24 @ UrbanGlass, Francely Flores
"HELL BENT", "Champlevé enamel on oxidized copper, brass findings, silver rivets, 4.5” x 3.5”, 2024"How does your creative practice allow you to flourish (grow, thrive, blossom)?
“I think I came out of the womb as an artist. I remember the vast majority of my childhood was spent simply creating, whether that may be my constant stream of drawings, playdough figures, short stories, building structures, playing pretend, or any other number of activities. I reached a point where I remember telling adults that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up and every single time I would say that I was told that there isn't any money in art and that I should pick something else. It wore me down to the point that I stopped saying that I wanted to be an artist and the art was no longer the sole purpose of my life. During my time in college I rediscovered my love of drawing and creating and began to bring it back into my life, which lead to making jewelry, which then also lead to metalsmithing.
My creative practice now allows me to flourish by feeding the joy of my inner child and showing my own children that they can do whatever they want to do in life and to find the people who support them. I love the freedom of taking a few pieces of wire and turning them into something completely different and unique.”
NYCJW24 @ UrbanGlass, Francely Flores
As a queer+ artist, what would you like to see and/or what do you need in order to flourish during this time?
“This piece came to me after speaking some motivation into existence! Two hours later I was patting the back of a wiggly three year old during nap time (I'm an early childhood educator!) and the idea jumped into my head. I repeated the thought as a mantra while sitting with the three year old until he fell asleep so that I could sketch them out and not forget it.”
“I live in a community where I recognize that I am extremely privileged to be a straight/cis-passing white woman, and I see so many peers who are afraid to live here, and more who have moved or are seeking to move just because of who they are in the community that they live in. It breaks my heart that so many people have felt bold enough to shout their hateful opinions and beliefs and to not show the love and compassion of the God they claim to serve. What my community (and I'm sure most communities!) could benefit from right now is love, compassion, and acceptance. Radical love is my own personal act of resistance.”
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, or research.
NYCJW24 @ UrbanGlass, Simon Leung
[queerphoria]v4 @ ECU Symposium
