Hello & welcome! My name is Tasha and here is a very long winded introduction to me and my art!
I’ve always been a maker by nature. Growing up as an independent only child, I had to find and make things to entertain myself. I remember making perfume from crushed flowers and water in the summer, gluing pom-poms together to make little animals for hours on end in the basement of my grandparent’s house, making “paint” by number sand art, but mostly, drawing. From a young age, I realized that I was able to express myself best through pictures, and so, I would sit for hours drawing and coloring the world around me or images straight from my imagination.
In preschool, my teachers approached my parents to tell them what an eye for detail I had. I was drawing dogs with little puffs on their tails just like my poodle’s tail at home. To me, Sabrina is what dogs looked like but I guess it was very advanced for my age. In elementary school, I devoured art books from the library and spent as much time as I possibly could in the art room, cutting, burning, painting, coloring, printing, papier-mâché-ing and throwing. In middle school, I fell in love with the tech. ed. classes that taught me how to bend acrylic into picture frames and make my own key chains. When it came to high school, I knew art was my life but I wasn’t sure how to make it a career or what I loved most so, I took all the classes I could: watercolor, painting, ceramics, drawing, printmaking, screen printing, and photography. The first time I developed my own pictures I fell in love with the art form. From meticulously setting the dials on my camera, shooting the image, and then spending time in the quiet dark room developing my images from nothing but a white sheet of paper, light, and chemicals.
As a teenager, one thing I knew for sure was that art jobs are hard to find. Art jobs that pay the bills are even harder to find (or so we were told). When I applied for college I decided that being an art teacher would be the best job for me. I would be able to share and cultivate my love of art in others and give back to my community. After my first year of college, I decided that teaching might not be for me. I loved teaching students and I loved taking art education classes but I didn’t love the politics of the public education system and I was afraid of what impact I could make creatively if I was constantly fighting for my job and defending its worth (it's 100% necessary if you ask me). I took one year of general art classes and finally decided to dive in as a fine art major. I again fell in love with all the art and took as many of the classes I could to figure out what I loved. I took printmaking, watercolor, painting, drawing, figure drawing, pottery, jewelry making, glass blowing, sculpture, animation, numerous different art history courses, and again, photography.
That was it for me. I had to finish my degree concentrating in photography. I spent countless hours in the dark room, smelling like chemicals and quietly humming to myself in the soothing amber light. It was almost meditative for me. As I progressed, I transitioned to color film and then finally to digital. I learned how to manipulate my images through lighting, composition, and Photoshop. But when I graduated I felt creatively spent. I had interned with a wedding photographer my last semester of college and loved the idea of interacting with wonderful clients while also having my own time editing at home (introvert alert) but I struggled to know where to start on my own. How did I get clients? What do I charge? Am I good enough for these people to trust? Weddings are high pressure!
I let the fear of failure and the notices of student loan repayment get to me and decided to just be a hobby photographer. Then, I remembered my high school art teacher telling me how my work always looked so illustrative and that I should study graphic design in college. At the time, I was terrified of computers and couldn’t imagine my life in front of one every day so I went a different route but now 4 and a half years later it didn’t seem so scary any more.
I packed my bags and went back to the only life I had ever known, student life, and signed up for classes to learn graphic design. That year went by in a flash. I loved being able to combine my hand skills with my computer knowledge to create art that was visually appealing for a vast array of platforms. I knew with graphic design I would be able to pay my bills while also helping people. I got a full time graphic design job one year after I graduated and have worked there for 4 years now. I enjoy working in the practical world but I really miss walking around (sitting at a desk 8 hours a day is kind of brutal) and talking to people and working with my hands. I started to teach myself new skills like macramé, wood burning, mural painting, and again photography. I’ve recently invested in myself and have been taking online courses to hone my skills and get back into nature. (I've just finished two courses spanning 36 hours of photography knowledge.)
As I begin to ramp up my photography business again, I want to assure you that you are in good hands. I’ve studied art my entire life and your photos will be just that, a work of art. I want to help you create and capture memories in an unobtrusive way while also making you look and feel like your best self. I specialize in natural light photography meaning, no intimidating lighting set ups or small studios here. We will go out in nature and be free together for a couple hours. I’d also like to point out that I am a people centered photographer which means I’m here for you, as a human, to talk to and confide in, and through photography, to make you look the best you possibly can so that your inner (and outer) beauty radiates through the frame.
If you made it all the way to the end of this, wow and thank you! Thank you for being a part of my journey, and thank you for showing an interest in my creative process.
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