Events Calendar

"Loud Bones: The Jewelry of Nancy Worden," a major retrospective exhibition for this internationally recognized Seattle jewelry artist, will be on display Nov. 21 through Jan. 17 at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art.

Organized by the Tacoma Art Museum, the exhibition features 41 examples of Worden’s one-of-a-kind jewelry that describe milestones, celebrations, personal history and rites of passage in the artist’s life. Objects have been selected from public and private collections throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Worden uses familiar objects in her art to trigger people’s memories and emotions. Vintage high heels, telephone parts, coins, credit cards, IBM typewriter balls, hair curlers and clothespins are juxtaposed with traditional jewelry materials such as copper, silver and gold to emphasize the beauty of everyday objects. Worden’s found objects are carefully chosen from mid to late 20th century American culture to provide her work with a specific chronology and location.

“Every piece has a story,” Worden has said of her jewelry. “People often tell me they see themselves in my stories.” Her social and political commentaries are rooted in universal female experiences: growing up, marriage, work relationships and being a parent. “Nancy’s jewelry is forceful, unapologetic, demanding and gripping,” said Rock Hushka, curator of contemporary and Northwest art at the Tacoma Art Museum. “Her jewelry is intellectual and complex, but at the same time, aesthetically engaging.”

In addition to the objects on display, the exhibition is accompanied by text panels, photo murals, annotated labels, a continuous DVD of the artist in her studio discussing her work, and a 128-page, full-color book with essays by Helen Williams Drutt English, jewelry collector and scholar; Susan Noyes Platt, art historian and critic; Michelle LeBaron, internationally recognized mediator and professor of law; and Rock Hushka.