Artist Tawny Green, KRVAA’s artist of the month.
Photos and Story by CATHERINE STACHOWIAK
“Nature Awakens” was the theme for this month’s Second Saturday Reception at the Kern River Valley Art Association’s Art Gallery.
The KRVAA displayed artist, Tawny Green’s work at the Artist of the Month Wall, for March.
Green especially loves working with watercolors. “I have done some acrylic. I have done other types of hands on art building and creating. My favorite, I’m doing watercolors and I started that about three years ago. And I find it’s really fascinating to me you have to let the water do some of the work and you lose control so you have to work with it and not control it,” Green said. “And it’s a nice metaphor for life, basically, working with the things that are going on and not trying to control everything. It’s like a science experiment all the time to me. I’ve always something to learn about. I’m just continually learning.
Her major piece that evening was “Krazy Glue,” a depiction of woman being held together by glue. “Many times I’ve felt like that’s been me. And that one is going to be displayed exclusively as a print on a website called The Giving Gallery, which they donate 30% of their proceeds to mental health organizations. I’m going to have exclusive items just for that site,” she said.
It was difficult for her to decide what pieces of hers to display. She went to her parents for their opinions. Her parents, who accompanied her to the opening that night, have been encouraging of her artistic pursuits.
“My mom is experiencing macular degeneration, so I do a lot of things that are what she describes to me when she receives her shots or her treatments and she tells me what she sees in her eyes and so I do my version of what she tells me she sees,” said Green. “I have a lot of recurring themes in my art. Atoms and mental health issues.”
Green often conveys her spirituality within her works. “It’s very much a spiritual journey. When I started art this time, I had not painted or done anything, for 12 years. And my husband passed away in 2017 and actually, literally for two years the dog and I were in bed except for when I went out, for my 3 cigarettes a day, for two years. And what got me out of that is I radically just bought some watercolors on Amazon and it just brought me back to life and it woke me up.”
The first place winner of the art contest that evening was Margaret Margosian for the glass work titled “Sunrise over Lake Isabella.” The second place winner that night was Sarah Nystrom for the fiber work titled “Fairy Tales.” Placing third in the show
was artist Robin Harmon for her felting work titled “Nature’s Watchful Eye.” Artist Dragonfly received an Honorable Mention that night for the work titled “I am Nature, Eye am Here.”
