Tania Tanti has been a maker and creator her entire life. She now paints her colorful and award-winning designs on fabric and then adds stitching (a lot of stitching) adding details and texture.
How did you find yourself on an artist’s path? Always there? Lightbulb moment? Dragged kicking and screaming? Evolving?
Having always been creative and making things I naturally progressed to study a fine art degree at university. I didn’t complete the degree however, as my main aim at that time was to major in photography as I was very much wanting to be a photographer.
Over the years, I was exposed to printmaking, drawing and painting and had many ideas and thoughts bubbling inside me, until opportunity came for me to fully immerse myself in an art practice.
When did you start designing and painting textiles to make fiber art?
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I started painting on fabric in late 2019. By that stage I had created a small amount of paintings on canvas and painted some small decorative pieces for around the home with acrylic paint.
Once I began with some fabric paint on cotton, that was all I wanted to do.
What different creative media do you use in your work?
The main materials I use are screen printed fabric paint and embroidery thread.
When I first created my earliest works I decided very quickly to have an exhibition and thankfully I was lucky enough to have a very skilled partner who was able to create beautiful frames for all of my work. It gave a whole new look to the works and really set them off.
Where do you find inspiration for your designs?
I feel very strongly in making your pieces very much your own. As much as we are inundated and exposed to creatives from all around the world, I try to limit this exposure and concentrate on the basics of my own work and where I go with it.
You can simply visit a gallery, a garden, a factory, there is inspiration in all of these areas once you combine it with your own imagination.There are more ideas popping through my mind than there is time to make them.
Do you use a sketchbook, journal, or technology to plan or keep track of ideas? How does that help your work develop?
Over the past 3 years I have kept some sketch books, to remind me of some of the ideas that I have had. There is always a lull, a little bit of a moment, between creating a new piece. This is when I sometimes flick through my sketches. It may help me decide on the next piece, or give me more ideas.
When it comes to creating, are you more of a planner or an improviser?
Most of my pieces are not well planned, so it may be as simple as an element. A line in part of a drawing that sets off the sparks for the next piece.
As much as I can be found whinging out loud to myself that I should plan things more. I can’t seem to do it. It feels boring and I don’t want to know what I am going to end up with. I guess I like surprises, less unpredictability.
Do you have a dedicated space for creating? If so, what does it look like?
I am fortunate to have a room that is largely my work space. It is in fact a room that I share with my husband and two sons. There is enough space for all of us, however, lets face it. There’s never going to be enough space ever!
Scraps. Saver? Or be done with them?
I’m in between. I do have plenty of scraps but I do get in there and whittle them down every now and again.
Are you a “finisher”? How many UFOs do you think you have?
I currently have more UFO’s than normal. I am a finisher, but at the moment it is unusual. I have about six quilts on the go. Normally I have two.
How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?
I start a new project as soon as I finish one. I clean the studio in between quilts as I am a master at making a massive mess. Once I am complete, I get it in good order and then fabric explodes all over again, or paint.
Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your works? How does a new work come about?
Sometimes my inspiration for a work can be a colour. I might just have an appetite for painting a particular colour to start with and then off we will go from there. Adding what I think will work with the next colour.
Sometimes a new work just literally falls out. You have a vision and splat it comes out. That is the best. But it doesn’t happen all the time.
Which part of the design process is your favorite? Which part is a challenge for you?
I do love painting. I could paint all day everyday, but having said that I love adding the stitches into the pieces and it really brings them to life.
How do you manage your creative time? Do you schedule start and stop times? Or work only when inspired?
I try to get into the studio and create everyday. Sometimes that may only be for an hour very early in the morning before I have to head out for the day. But I try to work in the studio as much as possible. I seize every moment I can get.
How has your creativity evolved over the years? What triggered the evolution to new media/kinds of work/ways of working?
I have a drawing I did when I was in high school and really I see what I do now in it. I also knitted and did needle point.
I have discussed this with creative friends. Sometimes, as an artist you go off to art school and think you need to develop and explore all these other things, so you do. Then you leave and continue your practice and at the end of the day you come full circle. What becomes your style, when you look back, you can see it was there all along.
You seem to hone your style over time, but if you liked to doodle, splat paint, paint faces, or block paint colours you tend to end up doing what you did all along but now you have nutted it out into a fine art and found your medium. It’s fascinating really.
Do you keep track of your work? Shows that you’ve entered? Tell us what works for you.
I am extremely bad at not keeping track. I need to. I have every intention to. I start and lose the folder I was saving the work into. But…….. I will get there. I don’t think I am as bad as I once was. For instance each work has its own folder now. Just not what shows I have entered etc.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
As awful as it is, nothing particular springs to mind. I am sure I have received some gems of advice over the years, but like everything I guess as an artist I like to do it my way. I mean that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. So just do what works best for you.
But the words of wisdom I live by is – You have to go through the shit to get to the other side.
An artist’s process is you begin by loving the piece you are working on, then you start to worry about where its going, then you hate your piece but continue to keep going, eventually you start falling in love with it again. You complete it and never want to see it again. You see it a few months later and think “hang on that’s not so bad after all”.
Where can people see your work?
I try to get my work out there any which way I can. Mostly my works are exhibited in Quilt exhibitions mainly in Australia and the USA.
You can visit www.taniatanti.com.au (although I really must update my website), Instagram and Facebook
Interview posted November 2024
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