We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tanya Clarke. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tanya below.
Tanya, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?
I came across the building of lighting by accident. I needed a fixture to replace the fluorescent overhead in my newly rented Venice Beach apartment and decided to build it myself. I had just moved to California from New York City and my piece combined the industrial nature I had left behind along with the water element which lay in front of me. Shortly after it was completed, I wandered into a gallery in Santa Monica that was exhibiting chandeliers created out of unexpected items. I showed the woman at the front desk a picture of the chandelier I had just built. She turned out to be the gallery owner and asked if I’d be interested in building another one to add to the collection…
Tanya, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My ‘Liquid Lights’ are custom-built, industrial designed light installations that experiment with the fusion of art and function. They create a visual reminder of the precious element that water is and our need to protect this natural resource. Hand-sculpted glass drops, plumbing, found-objects and low-voltage lights are incorporated in contribution of the zero footprint movement in the form of Liquid Light.
I was raised in Ottawa, Canada. Born into an activist family, my father Tony Clarke instilled in me a deep commitment to conservation. After fifteen years in Venice, CA, I now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia and am continually exploring ways to bring attention to the urgent issue of water scarcity.
‘Liquid Lights’ have been featured in galleries, museums and private collections in the US and around the world.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
See art. See free art. Buy art locally or when you travel! We are lurking everywhere! Support the arts in schools. It is the most universal form of communication.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
As with anything… it ebbs and flows. I was experiencing an ‘ebb’…
It was during the height of the LA drought and I had just watched the apocalyptic movie ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’. It gutted me. I decided to do an about-face and create a public work of art around a scene from the movie where corporate control over a water system left it’s villagers begging for a resource viewed as a human right.
I created 101 plaster cast faces of local friends, friends of friends, students and neighbors to represent the total population of 10,100,000 in the LA basin.
The collection of masks were coated in sand and initially staged and photographed on Zumba Beach in Malibu.
The project has since evolved and the masks are now mounted into seven sheets of wood embedded in layers of sand to represent the population density of every continent. Drought, thirst and the unstable nature of our fresh water supply does not only pertain to California, but yo the world as a whole.
These seven panels are currently on echo in downtown Los Angeles at the LA CleanTech Incubator in the Arts District.
It is titled ‘THIRST’.
Contact Info:
- Website: LiquidLightSite.Com
- Instagram: TanyaClarke222
- Facebook: Tanya Clarke
- Twitter: TanyaClarke22
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zIRHwDX1WcU