WEIRTON — Artist Jaci Rice is a little “rusty” at her work. And that’s brought the Weirton woman personal and professional validation, specifically as one awarded an Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Tamarack Foundation for the Arts for 2020. Rice was one of five artists selected from around West Virginia whose original works — part of her #RustBeltBeauty series — were showcased at Taylor Books in Charleston from Oct. 15 through mid-November. A link to the group show is available at https://tamarackfoundation.org/eaf2020exhibit./ The #RustBeltBeauty series, her website artist statement notes in part, challenges viewers “to discover aspects of beauty hidden in industrial and post-industrial areas like my hometown of Weirton, the monolith of West Virginia’s crumbling Rust Belt. Without stopping to observe the play of light and shadow, the hard juxtaposition of steel against the Ohio Valley hill, or the layers of color that decades of rust and soot have wrought, the full story of the life of a mill town cannot be understood. The importance of industry in rust belt areas cannot be separated from any aspect of the history of the people who live there. The twisted metal of factories makes up the strands of their DNA, and molten steel runs the length of family trees.”