Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident (MJ Do Good) 2017, (AIA) 2019
Tammy grew up in Wallingford, Connecticut. She earned her undergraduate degree from The University of New Mexico, and received her Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Florida. Currently she is a Professor of Art at Gulf Coast State College. She has also taught at the University of Florida, abroad at Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry India, and at the Skopart Foundation in Greece. In addition to maintaining an active teaching schedule, Tammy is a working studio potter. Her works can be seen throughout the United States and Europe and can be found in numerous galleries across the country. Tammy currently resides in Panama City, FL with her partner Pavel Amromin and two children Ari & Pearl.
Daily interactions, smiles, laughs, sorrows, things that have no cultural bounds, the similarities that make us human and the things that make us different, provide inspiration for my artistic vision. I am a people watcher, an observer who reads body language, facial expressions, and finds there my principal source of artistic inspiration. I have had many different jobs in which I have encountered a vast array of unique individuals. I have worked as a hairdresser, waitress, teacher, as well as a caregiver for the elderly, children, and mentally challenged persons. Several of these people have provided tales, which constantly resurface in my work. White crusty, cotton candy colored, smelly toes once sat on my lap. Winged, horned, two headed creatures exist in my head. I see the images everywhere; they haunt me. I see them in the curtains, clouds and in my everyday environment. They smile and scream out to be felt. What others, have impressed on me, I have found myself impressing on clay.
Clay empowers me to work with immediacy and intuition where simple modifications resonate strongly. The physicality of the material, this dynamic interplay allows me to explore the far reaches of my subconscious. It is when I am working in the studio that I am set free, hear I can be anybody: man, women, child, alien, animal, king, queen, alive, dead, emotional, or emotionless. I can swim in a stream of wine, fly on a magic carpet, laugh with fictitious characters, and cry with the dying.
SMALL CHANGES STATEMENT