Tania Booth – My Trees, Me

Ceramic

Donuts the size of my hand, with a hole the size of my finger

Made of clay collected from the side of the road in Northland

My grandmother collected clay from roadsides

Working for Uncle Chris on a sculpture

Drilling sandstone.  Stone powder mixed with water rivulets

Creating tree bark textures

 

Coloured clay with binder as paint on paper.

2D becomes 3D.  Floor to ceiling trees

Paper becomes cotton

Trees become clay

 

Wharepuke- granddads land

Dads subtropical garden

My trees, me

 

 Tania Booth- Bio

I studied painting at Ilam in Christchurch NZ. After finishing in 1992 I thought I might have learnt some skills but didn’t know what to “talk” about. What was important to me?  I did what most NZ kids do. I went travelling. It took longer than most. Most of my travel was through Asia but I could live and work in the UK. I did many different jobs. I helped Uncle Chris on sculptures in Australia, NZ, Netherlands, and England.  After 10 years I came back to NZ with Mark Graver, a printmaker, in tow. Things happen. Time passes. We now live here- at Wharepuke. I manage the cottages, I help curate shows here in our gallery, we set up the Wharepuke Art Park. I don’t get much time to do my own work but we are surrounded by creative people. How lucky am I! The brain still buzzes.