Today we’d like to introduce you to Nella Baduini.
Nella, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to make art. Whether it was writing little stories for myself, doodling in my school notes, or making dinosaurs out of pipe cleaners, I’ve always felt this urge to create worlds and then find ways to share them with others. In primary school, I loved my art classes; in high school, I took every art elective offered.
In college, I tried to “get serious” about my life, pursing a degree in the sciences and allowing myself only to take a creative writing elective once. Cooperative writing games became my only creative outlet for many years, with any other art or act of creation set aside as frivolous and wasteful of my time. I had to be a savvy adult and get a solid job, right? But no matter what kind of work I was doing, something profound was missing from my life. I never felt like I was caught up enough with my day-to-day responsibilities to reward myself with making art, and I was miserable. I felt trapped in a life that wasn’t making me happy.
Only after putting myself through several cycles of ‘job-burnout-mental health crisis’ did I realize how integral making art was to my identity. I realized that I had to give myself permission to take my need to create seriously, and to make it a requirement in my life rather than a reward. So several years ago, I did just that. I reached out to the artist community in St. Louis and started to share my work with peers. I allowed myself to start thinking about my art as art, and not “just” craft or just frivolity. Ever since, I have been growing in my voice, my ambition, and my career, and I can’t wait to see what heights I’m able to reach with my sculpture next!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As the term ‘mental health crisis’ might have indicated, it has not been a smooth road for me. For nearly ten years, I fought to put my life on a track that would lead towards traditional success. Some kind of career spent working forty-or-more hours a week, with all the trappings of “real” jobhood: PTO, health insurance, retirement accounts, the works. So what if I felt stressed out all the time? So what if I was always too exhausted by working to have any sort of life when I wasn’t on the clock? I tried to convince myself that this was how everyone felt, that being miserable all the time was just a part of adulthood that everyone had to endure.
But if I was miserable all the time… what was the point?
That dangerous line of thought always precipitated the worst of my mental health struggles. While I have been battling depression since I was in high school, I went through some of my lowest lows as I tried to twist myself into a position I was never meant to hold.
I still struggle with my mental health. I’m neurodivergent, and so I always will. But ever since I gave myself permission to embrace the artist I needed to be, I have found and been able to hold onto a joy that I was sorely missing for a very long time. I don’t plan on ever giving that up.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a sculptor and a storyteller. For the sculpting, I am primarily a fiber artist. I needle felt, which means I take loose wool roving and use special barbed needles to compact and shape it into soft sculptures with a uniquely dense texture. Having been obsessed with animals my whole life, it’s probably not surprising that I am primarily a creature creator. I love to turn my wool into animals, from simple, palm sized little figurines to large, elaborate creations.
Pulling from that lifelong fascination with animals, I strive to create well-observed animal forms and speculative creatures rooted in solid biology. All of my creations have a story, one that I try to convey by contextualizing them somehow. That’s where the storytelling comes in. Much of my work belongs to the broader story of “Nellasaura’s Faunarium”, inspired by old-fashioned natural history museums and privately-held cabinets of curiosities. Specimen tags, bell jars, and bestiary entries made into ephemera that accompanies my sculptures are all ways I’ve tried to tell these stories, and I’m always looking for new ways to share more of the natural history behind my pieces.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
My art and process can be followed online on Instagram and Facebook at @nellasaura.art. I am also a member of The Collective at 123, part of Say Art Studios and Galleries in Pacific, MO, and my work can be seen and shopped there most Saturdays from noon to four. I am open for commission work, and would love to talk to you if you’re looking to add a truly unique creature creation to your Ren Faire fit or art collection.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nellasaura.art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nellasaura.art/
