Tollie Nielson emerged from her college career with a Bachelors in Fine Arts at the University of Montana in 2024, and an Art Associates Degree in Jewelry and Goldsmithing at Flathead Valley Community College in 2018. Long before these accomplishments, Nielson’s family members have influenced her creative knowledge through exposure to practices such as drawing, painting, sewing, etc. The many individual generations’ encouragement then allowed her to ignore the limitations of the mediums used, and find her own style.
While her artworks involve bold concepts of color manipulation and an innovative use of multiple unorthodox materials, Nielson also has developed technical sewing skills that allow her to tailor and construct functional articles of clothing. She eventually understood that even flimsy two-dimensional materials can be used in forming sculptures as well as constructing clothes, and that these seemingly apposing processes of manufacturing and creating could also influence one another. Nielson’s fundamental seamstress techniques are emphasized in her artworks along with her conceptual ideas, whether any literal interpretations of the sewing processes are distinguishable in the final product or not. Jewelry making and goldsmithing function the same way, where tangible creativity is visualized through balancing traditional methods of production and functionality as wearable art.
