We've known Tiffany for years and it's a pleasure to introduce you to this Oakland based painter.
We've known Tiffany for 8 years now and have seen her work improve so dramatically over that time. Not only is she a fantastic artist but also a good friend who comes from the same great state of Ohio. She's a mellow hard worker who currently has a solo show up right now at BLK MRKT in LA as of this writting... The weird thing is that she's hardly on the site. So we sent her a few questions to change that up! -Trippe

I am very happy with the show. Most of my sense of accomplishment comes through on the day to day when I am alone with the paintings and challenging myself. But one of the things that excite me most about this show, in particular, was the fact that so many amazing people came through for me. My old man Freddie Bozic and my best friend Garett Zunt helped me install. Francisco Robles provided me with all the maple panels and frames on all the paintings. Peter Kirkiby framed all the Mask drawings. Billy O'Callaghan shot 1/2 the work before it went down to LA and even flew in, along with Mark Gross to take photos of the mouse installation. Jana Desforges and Dave Kinsey at BLK MRKT Gallery, once again, did an incredible job at making me feel comfortable with every aspect of bringing this work to the public. My love Jack, my mother Avis, Chris and Rachel, and the Lin family, Manny Caro, Todd Bell, Matt Hackett, there are too many to list; all traveled great distances to show me support - and The Canadians and Fish (who were there in spirit). Not to mention all the people that came to see my work... It might seem like I'm under this whimsy daydream where I am clutching a gold statue with tears in my eyes with all this, but you should understand... It takes a lot more energy than I have to make it all go down. I just can't thank everyone enough.

Sure it has a huge affect. I find that most of the people I meet from Ohio are very grounded, humble, and sincere. They are unpretentious honest hardworking people. Interestingly though, I find that it is always nice to be FROM Ohio, if you know what I mean.

I've always had the big desire to work without a deadline. Booking a show even as far as 1-2 years in advance is a reality that inadvertently has an affect on the work. I have been very fortunate with this last show in terms of the amount of total freedom I can now apply towards future experiments.

I just want to relax until I get sick of it... Right now I am writing this to you from a little cozy condo on Lake Tahoe. I'm not outside riding bikes through the trees with my friends though on this bright sunny Sunday - I am writing YOU, because you said you needed this by Monday. I blame You ;)

Hehe, very funny, johnny. Perhaps we should catch up soon eh? It certainly has been awhile... I'll tell you all about my master plan to make my very own leetle David Attenborough or Audubon. In all reality, if I should decide to have a child, they'll probably come out more like Paris Hilton or something that resembles a mid west Abercrombie and Fitch frat boy.

That's a Raggiana Bird of Paradise. Em I naispela flag (which is pidgin for 'hella tight flag yo').

I'm excited about going outside... Tahoe really is beautiful. The water is very clear here. Which is kind of surprising because clear water seems to be an 'old timey' kind of thing. Like it was popular in the 20's or something, like art deco and hot little haircuts.

I think my top 5 most consistent favorites are Johnny Audubon, Ernst Haeckel, Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, and Bjork.

I like my new studio, but beyond that Oakland is just a place to work. I don't like that I have to drive through an hour of traffic in order to meet a tree or swim in the ocean. I never considered myself a city person. My buddy ol' pal Matt Irving just made a t-shirt for his company Delphi that says something like "Every time I'm in the city, I wish I was in the country, and every time I am in the country I wish I was in the city." Or maybe it's the other way around...

I think I need to spend some more time out of it before I seem like a city hater. SF is my favorite little village. I think I just get bent out of shape because I'll never be able to afford to own a little home there. I've been living in the Bay Area for almost 8 years... it starts to get to you after awhile. It's like you can't get into this secret club without a bulged out pocket and a tie, and so you whimper, "well fine, I don't want to be in your club anyways... ties are for jerks". Though you know... you do like ties. Bowties especially. The polka dot one's? C'mon!!

I would like to imagine I would be like a Hummingbird or a Magnificent Bird of Paradise, but in reality would probably be one of those little scraggly brown city birds that beat off toeless pigeons for the crumbs we leave behind.

I am not a very good storyteller... but one of my favorite days was when a couple of the local girls in Herowana came by and asked me to tour the village with them. So at this point, after tromping around in the muddy jungle for 4 weeks with only men, I truly welcomed their company. They had not seen many white women, and their curiosity was matched by my own. By the end of the trip I could understand Pidgin very well, but still had trouble speaking it. Fortunately, One of the girls Joyce, 15, could piece together a little English. And so even though it was a struggle, we could get through a simple conversation. We spent the day together slowly walking around in bare feet. They showed me the vanilla and coffee gardens, little bugs and other amazing creatures; they took me into their sago palm huts, sat me down on the dirt floor with them and showed me how to cook Marita over the fire. I'll never forget there were pigs, scrawny kittens, and even a juvenile cassowary running around us as they painted my face with ground root, the color of deep vibrant blood. As she leaned closer to me, she told me her stories about what it was like to marry a man who already had 3 wives; what it felt like to grow up in the village and adapt to all of the changes that the rest of the world has imposed on PNG; their relationship to nature, their gardens, their sense of spirituality; all stripped away by Christianity and western influences... The conversations we had throughout the time that I spent in this little village changed the way that I see everything.

On a lighter note; I had also brought a little bubble toy with me that day. You know, those things you can get from any dollar store over here where you put a little plastic stick in soap and blow bubbles? The little kids had never seen bubbles. So within an hour I had about 30 or so gathered around me, wide-eyed and half naked. At first I think they thought I was some kind of mysterious witch working a magic of sorts. I didn't want to scare them. So I would just walk slooowly away from them blowing bubbles; but within an hour or so they were crawling all over me shrieking and giggling with excitement. The people of PNG are extremely intelligent, beautiful and potent with spiritual currency. The greatest compliment I will ever receive is when they told Jack when we were leaving that I had the soul of a PNG woman. This will always make me want to cry.

My friend Stan just brought some pretty cool music with him on our trip. Neko Case, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins and her other band (???) Rilo Kiley. Last week I was listening to the Be Good Tanya's a lot. I don't know who it is, it's not Jollie Holland, but there is one girl in that group that just has the sweetest voice. It's really fluttery and sincere.

Below are some questions that FF viewers submitted.

- I don't think it is a very easy world to break into - but then again I have never taken my work around or knocked on any doors, so honestly I don't know how other artists do it. It never seemed appealing to me to break into anything - I just wanted to paint what I wanted and have fun. I started really showing my stuff around SF around the same time I met John Trippe back in 2000. I had just been laid off from a job (dot com crash), the building was going to turn empty, so I proposed to throw an art show opening with a bunch of other really nice folks - I put a couple of little things up on the wall. Come to think of it - I kind of did make an effort. I had heard about John Trippe, what he was doing, and so was told I should contact him and see if he wanted to come to the show for kicks. So I did. He came, liked my work - had a few other shows with him and some other friends, met more people and so on. It was such a fun time; it still is. I didn't realize at this time that I even wanted to actually make a living as an artist and do nothing else. I think before any of the fancy hoopla happens, it is essential for an artist just starting out to focus ALL their energy on their work, their ideas, what it is they want to express and need to express, and finding their own voice. If you do that, the rest will kind of fall into place.

- I love Canada. You can still find 'old timey' clear water up there.

- I would come back as porous walker, because my favorite man loves mr. walkers funny drawings more than my own. Meeep 9

- Uh... don't know. You're going to have to turn that question around on yourself darlin.

- This is a good question. The first thing that came to my mind, was if I were to meet Lauren Hill, if I could paint her an album cover or something. That would be an honor blush.

- I'm kind of an all or nothing kind of girl, soo...
- Yes. I had a brush with cancer when I was young, but I got through it.

- I like fresh roasted coffee with orange juice, and my fiance's egg scrambly thingy with fresh veggies and cheese.

- "dudes of the world" huh? Well, where were you?!

- Wha?

- Rilo Kiley "More Adventurous". I haven't listened to the whole album yet though.
- This past year I've been along for the ride with the sun. I used to work with the moon. It changes. I've worked myself scary skinny, and been completely distracted and barely worked at all til' I got pudgy, back and forth. Which is OK. In the end, I am learning to understand my own natural patterns. There will be peaks and falls that relax a bit with time; and there are too many outside elements that control this too much anyways. I've learned to lock my door and pretend no one will ever see what I make. Just have fun exploring the little mysteries in your mind.

{moscomment}

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