Artist Statement
My work is a constantly evolving conversation between mediums. I move between watercolor, pastel, needle felting, illustration and graphic design without treating any one of them as the “main” practice.
Each pulls from a different part of my training and each teaches me something the others can't. A commissioned portrait, a hand-coded website, a felted sculpture, a classroom of students holding a pastel stick for the first time: I don't see these as separate disciplines so much as different dialects of the same underlying language.
I've never believed fine art and commercial work are opposites. Designing a logo calls on the same instincts as composing a painting, balance, contrast and what the eye is drawn to first. Teaching sharpens my own technique as much as it does my students'. Creating, in whatever form it takes, is how I process the world and stay connected to it. As my life changes, the work changes with it, carrying forward pieces of who I've been into whatever comes next.
— Tif