Reese Girdner

Artist & Educator

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Sculptural

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Reese Girdner was born and raised in Cozad, Nebraska and is now an undergraduate student at the University of Nebraska-Kearney (UNK). He is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Education with a Minor in 3D Art. He was admitted into the Summer Workstudy and Assistantship Program at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN where he worked and participated in multiple workshops. He has had artwork displayed in The Brickwalk Gallery in Kearney, NE, the Artists' Cooperative Gallery in Omaha, NE, the LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, NE, the Radial Arts Center in Omaha, NE, and has had multiple artworks featured in The Carillon, UNK's Literary and Art Journal.

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My work reflects how varied human experiences shape the ways we carry loss, purpose, memory, and change. It asks what it means to endure, to remember, and to become. My identity informs the work as an underlying presence, guiding my exploration of protection and vulnerability, mourning and perseverance, and stillness and transformation.Working in stoneware and earthenware, I combine wheel throwing with hand sculpting to create forms that balance structure and fragility. I incorporate symbolic botanical, insect, and skeletal motifs to suggest cycles of growth, decay, and persistence. My pieces embody a quiet, earned resilience and transformation that occurs slowly and often unseen. These elements function as quiet metaphors, where protection and vulnerability exist simultaneously.