Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Tanya Zaryski

I just received a package containting an amazing assortment of hand painted hand blown works by glass goddess Tanya Zaryski! I first fell in love with Tanya's work while vacationing in Woodstock, VT this past winter.


Here's a snipit from her artist statement:

"I have always considered myself an image-maker, and a decorator of surfaces. Attracted to the highly colored and densely populated surfaces of folk art images, textile designs, and ancient enamelled glass ware, I have striven to create the same "look" but in the context of my own experiences. Rows of town houses replace traditional abstract borders, and familiar faces stand in for figures of mythology."


In many of the pieces, Tanya has added remnants of spoken/written words (the "Speak" series). "Some faces utter words, distorted by molten glass overlaid in the comic-like speech bubbles, others speak in images. Bits of conversation, nonsense words and poems are painted deep within the glass."



Tanya began her art training at the University of Toronto, studying art history, painting, drawing and sculpture, before discovering glass blowing at Sheridan College. She completed three years working as an artist-in-residence at the Harbourfront Glass Studio in Toronto. She currently lives with her partner Mark Lewis, and their young son on a farm in the Beaver Valley near Georgian Bay (Canada). After 18 months of renovating, they have completed work on their century barn, creating a functioning hot glass studio and gallery space (Beaver Valley Glassworks).


More of the works that are now available at Three Graces can be seen here.