'We're not on our own': Artist Welly Fletcher explores interspecies relationships, animal intelligence and queer theory through sculpture

Jan. 14—Editor's note: The Journal continues the once-a-month series "From the Studio" with Assistant Arts Editor Kathaleen Roberts, as she takes an up-close look at an artist.

Welly Fletcher rolled up their jacket sleeve to reveal a tattoo of a half-human, half-lion figure nearly spanning the length of their arm.

The sculptor got the ink after seeing a similarly carved 40,000-year-old mammoth tusk in Germany. That moment would surface in much of their artwork.

Today, an assortment of "Star Wars" action figures line a shelf in their University of New Mexico studio. An assistant professor of sculpture, Fletcher has taught there for five years.

A 3-inch-tall bronze sculpture "Waves of Time," featuring the artist wearing a lion mask, emerged from that same German trip. The analogy between that and their "Star Wars" collection is not lost on Fletcher.

"This is an action figure in bronze," Fletcher said. "It can be small and powerful and have a very intense presence. This is about my journey as a sculptor."

Fletcher's work explores interspecies relationships, animal intelligence and queer theory. One of Southwest Contemporary's 2022 "12 New Mexico Artists to Know," the artist just received a solo exhibition at Richard Levy Gallery.

Gallery director Viviette Hunt was intrigued by Fletcher's work from the start.

"We have been watching (Welly) for a while," Hunt said. "She had a piece at 516 Arts.

"We were very impressed by what she was making," Hunt continued. "I liked the linking to the past and imagining the future. We needed to use the full gallery to show their work. It's not something you look at and have seen a million times."

In Fletcher's "Slant" series, diagonal rectangular wood columns disrupt the right angles found in traditional sculpture. Organic patterns found in feats and scales abound. Other pieces mimic prehistoric sculptures of animals in a nod to humanity's continuous kinship with four-footed creatures. Fletcher uses digital technologies such as CNC routers, 3D printers and plasma cutters, along with traditional handmade techniques. CNC routers help the artist cut and shape wood, plastic or metal with the help of a computer.

Originally from Palo Alto, California, Fletcher earned a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1999 before heading back to the Bay Area and taking a string of jobs.

"I avoided it for a long time," Fletcher said of their seesaw into art. "I really have not wanted the attention or the word 'artist.' I came out as queer before I came out as an artist.

"(It was) knowing that any other choice would be easier," she said. "It needs your whole life."

She thinks of work as a series of 3D puzzles.

"I love the smell of molten metal," the artist said.

Fletcher earned a Master of Fine Arts from San Francisco's California College of the Arts in 2010.

Visitors to the Levy exhibition "SLANT" flocked to Fletcher's piece "Trans Time," with its neon orange lion head perched atop plasma cut steel.

"I think it was kind of a showpiece," said Sallie Scheufler, assistant gallery director. "They were really enamored of the process and the history it was based on."

Fletcher's "Striped Manylith" is a slanted piece comprised of basswood, milk paint, felt and steel. She sculpted the title piece "Slant" from wormy maple, steel and felt. Fletcher deliberately chose wood lined with the imperfect trails of worms.

"They're all anti-monoliths," the artist said. "There's a strength and a vulnerability. We're not on our own. We're comprised of many parts and pieces.

"I started thinking of this diagonal as a metaphor for queerness because it's not straight," she added.

"Tarpon Totem for Diagonal Resistance" combines poplar, purpleheart (a Latin American hardwood), felt and milk paint. She used the purpleheart as a breastplate, carved into shapes resembling leaves, scales or feats.

Fish scales overlap in metallic patinas in "Vogelherd Fish Shield," another piece inspired by an ancient figurine carved from mammoth tusk. The name refers to the Southwestern German cave in which the original was found.

"I think our desire to connect with our co-species comes out all over," Fletcher said.

Fletcher's next project will be a sculpture of dog Lenny's curving paw.

"I'm going all the way back to ancient history and bringing it into my studio with my action figures," Fletcher said. "And I'm an obsessive learner."

The artist has exhibited widely and been awarded artist residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California, Stelo Arts in Portland, Oregon, and the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Portland, Oregon.