Stacey Rathert is an artist originally from the way outs of Kansas, also known as the small farming community of Lancaster. Rathert received her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Science in Education in 2011 from Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas. She then made an epic Uhaul voyage to the south to receive her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Mississippi, Oxford, in 2015. Currently Rathert is a Instructional Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi in sculpture and foundations.

 

Working in a variety of scale, Rathert creates artwork that tells exaggerated and fantastical stories centered on themes of personal identity and a rural upbringing. She uses recognizable imagery to illustrate her narratives, elevating the mundane through alteration. Relating to the performance of exhaustive story telling, she is most drawn to materials that require meticulous methods to transform, such as cast metals, smithed and fabricated steel, fabric and fibers, and found objects.

 

Outside of her academic and artistic endeavors Rathert enjoys a good, medium rare KC Strip with a side of carbs, adding to her collection of over 100 antique and toy sad irons, knitting and sewing, cooking and baking but not doing the dishes, bowling, hikes with her cattle dog Mabel, escapes to the farm to drive tractors, restoring her 1971 International Scout and antique furniture, taking the long way home, and moving heavy stuff, over and over again.

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