TJ

An foreign artist celebrating creativity while working with mixed media in Germany.

I’m TJ, an American artist that has been living in Europe since the summer of 2002. The first 2.5 years were in Southwest London and since then in the Franconian region of Germany.

I’m the wife of a German and a step-mom to his son. I’m a biological mom to a German-born boy. My hubby and I face all kinds of crazy challenges as a mixed race couple and what the Germans refer to as a “patchwork” family.

A lot of my energy is spent in escapades that magnify the conflict between my culture and the land I’m living in.

My sanctuary is my studio where all sorts of alchemy takes place. Before I had the luxury of having a physical studio space, my studio was my mailbox. Artwork coming in and going out through the hands of our friendly (and sometimes unfriendly) postal workers. Stamps and customs forms and illegible plastic sealed paperwork.

The one thing that I look forward to more than anything is when the mail is delivered. A person might not be able to speak the language of the community they live in. They might live in a time zone too far away to call their friends and family during normal waking hours. Yet as long as you have a post office or a computer, you have the ability to connect.

This blog is about the inspirations that come from my surroundings. It’s about the relationships I’ve made from art groups I’ve joined and the work we make and share with one another. Mostly it’s about Mail Art and the love of mail in general. I hope you enjoy my blog and I thank you for visiting.

About my artwork:
I’ve painted on anything and everything that sat still long enough to be painted on. I’ve worked on walls, fabrics, flowerpots, children’s faces, theatre backdrops, cupboards, tables, rugs, pumpkins, pottery, trays, boxes, benches, books, and canvases. I love mosaic and collage which I consider to be the same method merely with different mediums. “Small pieces puzzled together to make recognizable larger patterns.” I love to sew both by hand and machine.

I love photography and graphic work. I completed Photoshop training at Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design (London) followed by an internship at a reprographics studio in Nürnberg, Germany where I learned scanning and retouching. I returned to a London print-house gaining experience with estimation, impositioning, 4-color printing and finishing.

Originally from Northern Minnesota, I grew up in a community with a strong craft base. We Minnesotans love everything from scrap-booking to quilting. I’m currently busy trying to take all the tools and materials I’ve explored and experimented with and bring them together. I’m relatively new in this wonderful world of Mixed Media. So far, it’s really fun.