Biography

Tracie Noles-Ross was born, raised and educated in Birmingham, Alabama. She still resides there in a stone house in a 5 acre wood nestled in a world she likens to living in a snow globe, with her husband, 2 children, 2 dogs and 2 cats. Although she has developed a style of her own and cannot claim to adhere to any rigid academic structure when making her art, she is not a self taught artist. She studied at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the 80s (and a little in the 90s) when painters were as big, rebellious and rowdy as rock stars. She studied Art, English and Women's Studies. Her current work is informed by her experiences in each of these areas.

Tracie Noles-Ross has been actively creating and exhibiting art for 20 years. In 2004 her work was featured in a solo exhibition called Calliope's Moon at Bare Hands Gallery. The artist saw this as a turning point in her approach to the creative process. Acknowledging that life and art are inseparable, she began to approach the process in a more holistic way. Her geographical and interpersonal horizons were both expanded at this point in her life and work. The work in this series examined themes of motherhood as well as her travels to China to adopt her first daughter. That same year Noles-Ross and her family were featured in an Emmy nominated National Geographic documentary made for MSNBC entitled, China's Lost Girls.

In 2006 she shared billing with fellow Alabama artist Wendi Flowers in an exhibition, also at Bare Hands. This show revolved around themes of childhood and memory. This series came on the heels of the artist bringing a second daughter into her family. Raising two girls heavily influenced the direction of the artist's new work. Ideas about sensory triggers, personal symbolism and fragmented memory dominate the new work.

Noles-Ross has had solo exhibitions in galleries such as The University of Alabama at Birmingham, The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, The University of North Alabama at Florence, The Fifth Gate Arts Center, The Birmingham Art Association and Bare Hands Gallery. She has also been responsible for such projects as co-founding The Fifth Gate Arts Center Gallery and Artists Studio co-op where she curated exhibitions and ran an artists studio center. She co-founded the Flood and Mystic Chamber Salon, an experimental artist installation group, with Olsen Ross, Arthur Price and Marcia Bacon Connolly. She was an artist in residence at the Thomas Project in Thomas Alabama on the site of the old Republic Steel and Thomas coke works site for 2 years and she has been a stable artist at Bare Hands gallery for 10 years, since the gallery's inception.

She has received awards from the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans , Anderson Ranch in Snowmass Colorado and Art's Alive in Florence Alabama. Noles-Ross along with several other Alabama artists was commissioned in 2000 to create a low relief sculpture for the Alabama Veterans Memorial. In 2001, Noles-Ross was invited by the Women's Studies Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to curate the exhibition Firsts: The Personal and the Historical, an exhibition honoring Women's History Month. She was given an Award of Excellence by The University of Alabama at Birmingham's Women's Studies Program for her work.

Her work has been reviewed extensively throughout her career and she has been interviewed and had reproductions of her work printed by publications such as Alabama Art Monthly, Birmingham Magazine, The Birmingham News, The Birmingham Post Herald, The Tuscaloosa News, Birmingham Weekly, Black and White, The Flor-Ala,TheOpelika/Auburn News and Two Girls Review. In 1998, 1999 and 2001, she was an invited guest of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Visiting Artist Lecture series. In 2000, her painting Conejaro, was used as the cover for Leslie Braly's CD Songs From Shannon. In 2002 She was guest speaker at the University of North Alabama. Her work is included in many private collections throughout the U.S. as well as England, Japan,and New Zealand.