Meet Karen Tamminga-Paton | visual artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Karen Tamminga-Paton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Karen, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?

I was one of those kids who could draw. My earliest memories of drawing was with my dad who loved to move pencil and pen around on paper. We would snuggle up on the couch and create scenes together.

I landed most of my jobs because of this ability to draw. But it was when I became a mother with young daughters that I had a need to express deeper longings through the creative process. After putting the kids to bed, i would pull out supplies and explore colour, imagery and media. I found meaning and solace from the isolation of motherhood while at my little kitchen easel.

For several decades I was a highschool visual arts teacher. My art evolved over the years alongside my students. I had a studio practice that often intersected with my classroom work. I brought paintings in for students to touch, to critique and to add on their own marks. It was during my years as a teacher that i became more interested in collaboration as part of the creative process. Inviting my student or the general public into a piece has become one of the great joys in my art career.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My work is not easily categorized, i suppose. I am interested in using whatever genre works for an idea, so i’m comfortable being fluid in my approach. I enjoy realism and will feature familiar subject matter such as birds, trees, boats, or the human figure as touch points, then juxtapose them with something surprising to create a space for the fresh consideration of ideas. Many of my pieces are driven by a question. Work at my easel, then, creates space to think more deeply about things that matter to me. I am also very interested in collaborative work. I have had people write on my art, sew on my paintings, make marks, add their handprints and their words. I love figuring out how to work these contributions into my piece. Usually these collaborative pieces are based on a central theme, a current issue, such as ocean health, civil dialogue, or what they consider to be words of reparation in the face of ruin.  The exchange is always enriching and unexpected and is also foundational to my art practice:  how can we have conversations about hard things?  What do these images stir up in you?  The third space that a piece of art offers is a compelling one.

Currently I work fulltime in my little blue studio in a small coalmining town in southwestern Alberta. Before my studio, i was a high school art teacher for many years. It was during this stage in my life that I learned not to take myself too seriously, to roll with what came up and to pivot, to make a mistake into something beautiful. Often I would ask them, “what is the most important thing in your world right now?”, and to let that drive their creative process. I think my students were my greatest teachers and taught me a great deal about approaching work with a certain fearlessness and with integrity.

I am a new grandmother. It is an absolute marvel to me! These two little boys burst through the doors of the studio like they own the place. They want materials; they want to make art! Amazement at the new colour, at the beautiful line at the shape that looks like, say, a potato, is constant and must be given a place in a gallery – which we make sure happens. As i continue on with my practice, i am learning alongside these two little ones who are entering a very complex world. i hope they remember their times in Nana’s studio where they made things just for the sake of making and could experiment with a rich visual language beyond words.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I live in a small mountain community, but should i find myself in a city, I have certain places I go to first. I love the micro breweries and cafes where they sell artisan coffee. If I can, I try to engage in conversation about their city. Where would they suggest i go? What is their special place they are willing for a stranger to see? I’d want to know if there was a water way, and I would be curious about where to find the trees. Where there are trees and water, there are birds, and, there, I would listen. I would be curious to know about the indigenous peoples. What art or special places tell their ongoing story?

In my own small community, I would hope to give people new to this area a taste of the incredible natural beauty we have here in the eastern slopes of the Rockies. Coal mining is what drew diverse peoples from all over the world who hoped to cash in on the promise of security and wealth, but the world is shifting and with it, a growing sense of its fragility. We are in the midst of re-imagining what living in this place could be. It is controversial and interesting. Using the vehicle of art-making can be a beautiful way of connecting with this part of the world.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are many! I think the primary person would be my husband, Dale. He has championed my work at its earliest stages when I was tentative and had such little sense of what I could do.. Even more than an appreciation of a finished piece, Dale understands the entire process underlying the product, why I do what I do; what stories drive my questions. Dale gives me courage to step onto new ground.

The other person is my brother, Ben. Ben was a sculptor, par excellence. His work was provocative and complex. Ben died of cancer several years ago. but not before he imparted to me a deep love for the creative process. He taught me to work hard and attend to my craft, to listen deeply and to not get distracted by what’s going on out there, that only I could do what needed to be done by me.

Website: www.tammingapaton.com

Instagram: Tammingapatonart

Facebook: Karen Tamminga-Paton Art

Image Credits
photo of me at easel by Katelyn Metzger, (metzgerkatelyn@gmail.com) The rest are by me or someone handy who could point and shoot with my camera.