We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tyrani Milks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tyrani, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I was born into a family with high expectations to go far and to achieve excellence in not only academics, but whatever we were allowed to do. This included any form of the arts such as music, sculpting, or painting. However there were a few chances for me to be imperfect and express my creativity with as much freedom as I wanted. When I was in the third grade my grandmother taught me how to sew, not only by hand but by machine as well. I was amazed at the ability to cut and sew anything I wanted together, even if it was just scraps into my very first personal design of what was supposed to be pajamas. Little did I know stretch felt doesn’t make great pajamas to sleep in, let alone hold together. I believe it was there when I started learning crafts from my grandma that I gained an interest in creative outlets. We would melt colorful plastics together to make berets and necklaces. Go rock hunting to make rock jewelry. Her and my mother were my biggest supporters in allowing my creative side to flow as my mother would join in many times on our escapades.
After having the chance to leave the more restrictive side of my family and experiencing what the world of art and creativity could offer through art teachers in school sharing their favorite and various forms of creating, did I realize that I was so happy and intrigued that I wanted to continue this through out the rest of my life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

To introduce myself I would refer to myself and what I do as being a fiber artist. It wasn’t until I was in tenth grade high school that I began to take the idea of cosplay seriously. It offered me the chance to do more than just sew. There was fx makeup, props, costume and most important wigs. I used my interest to begin my journey through art school, and realized you can do more than just sew something together with fabric, you can do more than spray some hair in place for a hairdo. I learned that these fibers can beanipulated in any form I pleased. Even if it meant using them to make installations or artifact art .

With this realization I’ve come to expand my brand from just costumes and wigs to Contemporary pieces submitted to gallery shows. While currently I primarily do wigs, I am able to manipulate fibers from hair to fabric, even paper to create interesting pieces for my clients, and show the possibility of soft materials expands past their presumed limits.

This is part of what I am most proud of. Discovering what I can do with fibers and expanding on what I had originally planned for myself, sticking to just costumes. I am proud that I encompass more than just a cosplayer, costume designer. I can incorporate my favorite methods into the realm of fine art and continue on with the wig and costume designs.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I believe that just like my mother and grandmother had, society can support artists more and help them thrive by allowing them more opportunities to express themselves, rather than having the restrictive art world where you need an in vs. The rest of society and the views of being a “starving artist”. There should be more support for those to achieve their dreams from both sides of these societies in regards of careers, schooling, wages offered to meet needs, and allowing kids to explore every avenue of their future. The barrier that artists currently face with finding jobs and needing an in to the artist/gallery world and being confined to what is currently trending should not be an issue when creatives need other creatives to support them. We are all in the same society, each with our own practice and views but that doesn’t mean we cannot support one another and breaking down that barrier of the in.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I am not a fan of nfts and I do not support them. It allows for people to steal others work and remarket it as their own. It removes opportunities for artists in the physical world. As well as the amount of lithium mining that is needed to produce a single nft is doing terrible things to our environment. While I am one for 3d and virtual art in the physical and non physical realm. I do not support nfts.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tymeartstudio.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/tymartstudio
• Other: Instagram.com/wowmynameiscreative

Image Credits
Tyler Judson