About Tric

Pat "Tric" Nelson (he/they) is a queer interdisciplinary artist and visual arts educator whose work spans physical mediums and digital platforms. A practicing artist exhibiting nationally and internationally, his work hovers in the spaces in-between — inviting the viewer to question the familiar and bringing visibility to what typically goes unnoticed. Born in Wisconsin and raised in Arkansas, his practice is rooted in a sustained attention to the overlooked and the peripheral. Tric holds an MFA from SUNY New Paltz, where they were a Sojourner Truth Fellow, and an MA in Special Education from the Catholic University of America, with undergraduate foundations in Fine Art with departmental honors from Hunter College and Integrative Studies and International Relations at Hendrix College. This dual grounding in studio practice and special education shapes a core teaching philosophy: access as a design constraint — ensuring that complex concepts, from screen-to-machine digital workflows to analog craft, are genuinely accessible to neurodiverse and general education students alike. Having taught at the university level, in public and independent schools, and held residencies at internationally recognized art centers, he currently serves as K-12 Visual Art Curriculum Coordinator and secondary teaching artist at a leading arts-focused independent school specializing in language-based learning differences.