TAOU IS FOR ARTISTS: TESS FISHER
Interviewed by Derowen Cutchin
What is THE ART OF YOU?
I'm an ever expanding being following my guides and intuition to accomplish what I am here to learn and discover in this lifetime. I’m an artist, I play music, I write, I metalsmith, I tan hides and do some light taxidermy stuff. I paint, I dance, I lose my mind sometimes and I reel it back in… I feel like every good artist needs to lose their mind more than once.
What is your process like?
So much of my creating process is used to sift through, funnel, and balance out my emotions and energy. I seek a meditative flow while I’m working to help regulate myself. I like to be intuitive in my process, staying open to new ideas or new ways to go about creating. I definitely lead more through intuition than structure.
What do you find yourself getting caught up in?
I think it rotates for me. I think that I have creative ADD or I get tunnel vision. I try to balance between all my mediums I like to do because I think they are all different ways to express different things. The way that I create in general is intuitive. I'm definitely a type B person and always very structure-less. I'm not good with structure, I don't feel safe in it. I guess, I almost feel more safe in chaos, or find more freedom in it - less ties that bind.
Describe your process:
My focus with tanning is creating sustainable naturally tanned sheepskin goods. I'm working on creating rugs, vests, hats, collars and more. The tanning process itself takes a few days. I have to travel a good way to get my hides and have to allow them to cure before I can tan them. After they are tanned they are good to go! While I work, I sing and write songs in my mind that later I can go and work on on my guitar. If I ever feel stagnant between the two or my hands and body need a break I will pop in my jewelry studio and spend the day working on a ring to give my brain a reset.
How did you get into tanning hides and taxidermy?
I honestly don't know how to explain how I got into it. It was just a feeling. I left home when I was 18 and rode trains and hitchhiked for a while, and like a true train kid, I made bone jewelry. At first it started with walking over the tracks and finding bones and I was a crust -punk metal kid, into collecting skulls and stuff like that. You know, always having an altar or some kind of like ceremonial space in my house. I guess that’s how it started.
Was it train culture that inspired the altars?
I think witches have altars - altars go back to spiritual people, I don’t feel like it's like a punk or a train thing. I think that most people in their house, no matter where they come from, have some kind of altar, it could just look different. You could have a “live laugh love” sign or you could have a picture of your friends and it's still your altar. It's just a space in which you create, it's yours. Creating an altar in your space is just a further extension of yourself, a space for secret things and something that means something to you.
What are you currently working on?
I’m currently focused on getting my sheepskin business, Rüna, launched and working on music for another album. I will be preforming at the TAOU fundraiser show at Gallery5 AUGUST 29th!!
Thank you so much, Tess! Check out her art here.
