Exhibitions

TARRI DRIVER: SPEAK NOW

UpFront Gallery / 133C S. Gay St. November 3, 2017 - November 24, 2017

Tarri Driver

Statement:

Speak Now
…or forever hold your peace…not really, not literally, but how often do I hold my peace (to keep the peace) instead of speaking? And how does listening enter into the equation? Here’s how: I’m in front of my easel, asking the thought, the surface, the image, the statement, the proclamation before me, “What do you need?” I sit quietly, silently, attentively. Listening becomes the impetus for speaking. Speaking through lines, colors, shapes, imagery, symbols. Here is my voice. This is how I speak. Thank you for listening.

Bio: 

As an undergraduate, Tarri studied fine arts and psychology. She then earned a Master’s Degree in Education, focusing on expressive therapies. Some of her art is influenced by her academic training and a decade-long career that followed, when she worked with children and teens in inner-city schools and a children’s hospital as a board-certified, registered art therapist and licensed counselor. Her Lunar Mooner Lula series of richly illustrated picture books for children is meant to impart big-picture lessons and wisdom. 

Much of her other studio work is aimed at adults and heavily influenced by current events, Jungian psychology, Gestalt theory, the subconscious, human rights, politics and absurdity. She strongly feels that one of her main roles as an artist is to further cultural discussion and critique and to express dissent. Her work can be subversive and powerful, raw and grotesque, beautiful and interesting, educational, lovely and weird. Tarri makes art because she feels compelled to do so; making art is her gift, and she needs to share it