Humidity Gallery - Tana McLane's Artwork

artFire jewelry
Tana McLane

Trapezoid-Fan Necklace: copper, sterling fabrication & gemstones

Rustic & Romantic describes these one-of-a-kind necklaces, and there's a creation myth behind each one! Visit Humidity Gallery and we'll tell you the stories behind these creations. Your eyes will dance with delight as you take in the colors, lustre, and textures springing from a myriad of materials and techniques.

These earrings are about energy waves. They could be bubbles welling up from the deep, or stars spinning in the galaxies, mixing with the golden-rust colors of Earth and her native elements.

Handcrafted earrings abound in Humidity! Imagine shelves full of energetic earrings, some with little orbs in vibrant colors, dangling turquoise reminding us of ancient people and the richness of the seas.

Vintage glass recording the history of cultures who made them their currency and their trade. All on sterling earwires and posts. Many surprises are sprinkled into each design.

Women are strong citizens.
No excuses.
My jewelry seeks to accentuate our strength and beauty.
We are handsome creatures of our own design.
I hope my wearable pieces remind us all of that.

Artist
Statement...

I’ll never forget Robin Morgan explaining that ‘radical’ means to ‘go to the root.’

And I have sought to make my life about that rootsy sensibility. I’ve always found the coolest stuff in thrift stores and on the ground. And so, when I turned my attention to metals fabrication, I was not interested in repeating the classical designs of the jewelry world, nor did I seek perfection.

Instead, I seek an authenticity, to say something rooted and real through any medium, of what it is like for me to be here observing life where I find myself.
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Apparently, my private language includes the details of the natural world of Tallahassee, where I found myself living in the 1970s. There, a city girl, I encountered mulch, lichen and thorny vine for the first time. I encountered the power of media and the written word as well. My real education began when I left school.
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And so today, 16 years after I began a career in art jewelry design, my work speaks to my deepest observations. I make stuff up, to fit my own theology about the world. But I root it in the known; fantastical and creative on top of science, on top of ‘fact.’ You have to understand these things to understand my work.
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My botanical forms are entirely my own, but they echo what I have seen. They contain the spirit of found-object assemblage, but they are fabricated by my hand. Rust and patina are my muses, as are hammered and etched detail.

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As a bard said: “I care not for beauty.” I care for something else. For something to hold my interest in its imperfection. For something to be beautiful because it is possible. For something to exist because I have said it shall.

It takes a long time to become young.

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