Metal artist Jeri Moe of New Mexico creates intricate and impressive nichos, retablos, and sculptures from recycled, painted tin as well as raw tin and copper that has been cut, hammered, and soldered. Many of her works are inspired by the designs found on the recycled materials. Moe combines images and words in a humorous or profound way: she is a masterful hammersmith, as well as a wordsmith comparable to Jenny Holzer. Her works are small in scale, but epic in substance, questioning the effects of industrialization on the agrarian life, religion, gender, sexism, romance, and even nostalgia.

By combining older traditions with newer materials and expressions, Moe dialectically engages the contemporary art world with folk traditions. When the Spanish arrived in the Americas in the 16th century, they found the indigenous people working with tin to make functional tools and ornaments in much the same way the Europeans did. Tinplate (made from steel dipped in tin) was documented in Europe as early as the 11^th century. During the 18^th and 19^th centuries in New and Old Spain, tinplate manufactured in England served as popular material for tools and ornamentation, like candle-holders, frames, canisters, and lanterns as well as altar ornaments, crowns for statues of saints, sconces, frames and niches for religious pictures, reliquaries, and processional lanterns. The development of painted tin in the 1900s was embraced by New Mexico tin artists who created new works using the designs from the painted materials. In the state of New Mexico, Jeri Moe is recognized as one of the finest living tin artists still working in a centuries old tradition.

Moe builds on the artistic legacy of her region with an ethos of hope.

According to Moe: "Resurrecting materials from their original uses and their discarded outcomes into objects of cultural value is both metaphorical and progressive. The practice shows how we can reshape ourselves within our own culture towards cooperative and productive ends."