Today we’d like to introduce you to Tara Lynn Herbst Kopp

Hi Tara Lynn, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?

I have always been an artist. I began using mixed media as early as the age of three. I continued with art all the way through high school but without formal training. I used art as an escape from a very extensive, intense, and abusive childhood. Art was my therapy when therapy wasn’t offered. My childhood home was one of secrets and shame. My art was my creative outlet to help heal from the childhood I experienced.

I married two years out of high school to an amazing, patient, and tolerant man. He, and our three children, are the sole purpose I am still alive to this day. While trying to be a mother to three small children I was diagnosed as Bipolar I. I went through extensive financial and legal trouble; ultimately landing in prison for 17 months. While incarcerated I received the treatment medically and emotionally. When medicated I was amazing; unmedicated meant I was a danger to myself and my family,

I was released from prison with the Bipolar diagnosis and proceeded to put my family and life back together while living in a small, judgmental, and gossip filled town. I held my head high, focusing on my marriage, my children, and my art. The art I created became more healing. After some time I realized I could share a lot of my struggles through art, thereby helping others share, over come, and become healthier version of themselves.

I currently own a stained glass business but also have an extensive portfolio of watercolors, mixed media art, and colored pencil art. My art has been showcased in multiple events. I’ve sold pieces and have been commissioned to create pieces for local galleries and societal functions. If I hadn’t struggled with mental health, incarceration, and therapy I wouldn’t be the artist that I am to this day.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

The road was far less than smooth. Coming home from prison to a small town was excruciatingly painful, hurtful, and gossip filled. I attended all of my children’s school programs where I was more the center of attention than the actual school programs. I had people who wouldn’t help me, stores that asked me not to shop local, and not attend some town functions,

It was HARD. I woke up every morning wondering if today would be the day that I was accepted. That my past transgressions had been forgiven, that people had moved on and that I would be re-welcomed into the small community of 1500 people. I was wrong and currently am still not on “level” with some people in town. I will never be able to let go of the past when it is still very much present and will be in the future.

It has been 14 years since my incarceration and nothing has changed. I am still gossiped about, I still have service turned away from myself, and I am still considered a main topic of gossip. Why haven’t I moved? My kids are still here. They are grown adults and they are amazing. I will not move and lose out on seeing my children grow to become kind, empathetic, and overall amazing humans,

My husband grew up in this small town. It has always been his home and I would never want him to lose his sense of self. He is deeply rooted in the community and he deserves to be “home”. I am strong enough, I care enough, I love hard enough that I can hold my head high and not care about what others think of me anymore. As long as my husband and children are happy, then I am happy too.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

I use a lot of different forms of mixed media, however, my specialty is stained glass, I have created large storefront pieces for stores in the next largest city (I am still not welcomed to do pieces locally). I have a large online following and I sell most pieces directly to customers or I create distinctive pieces for discerning customers who largely seek me out because of my struggles. My glass work allows me to tell the stories of people like me; complicated.

I am proud of the fact that I came from a horrendous childhood situation to become a business owner on multiple levels and with multiple businesses.
The stained glass company is not the only business I own but it is the main focus in my life. I have been featured in newspapers, hard copied, women focused magazines and in online magazines as well. I have shared my story. I’ve had multiple women reach out with their own stories and share how they overcame or were in therapy for abuse issues. My story inspired them to make changes in their worlds. My story helped these women make uncomfortable, hard, and life altering decisions to create better futures.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?

I collaborate with a lot of people who are trying to share their art, build their skills as an artist, and put their information out for the general public. This has lead to sales for them so that their “hobby” becomes their career. I support these men and women through mentoring, sharing of my craft, and teaching new generations the “old skills” of art.

With a world so digitized, getting your hands dirty in art can be cathartic and the opportunity to grow is available, you just have to grab it and hang on!

I have a very supportive husband, three kids (Mark is my husband, Abbey, Hunter, and Carter are my children) and I have many animals…Never once have they let me down. They are my harshest critics, my biggest supporters, and who I live to make proud. I hold myself to standards set by others but the biggest goals I will ever achieve are my own. These standards I set for myself are the ones I hold myself to the highest; the strictest.

I could never achieve what I have without my family. To them, myself, and to a specific psychiatrist I owe everything.

Pricing:

• Custom pieces are priced individually
• Pieces produced on a general basis have prices that are offered when asked for.
• My prices are all over the place. I guarantee I can make you something you love with what you have,

Contact Info:

• Facebook: The Rebel Glass Company

Image Credits

Myself