Bay Area visual artist, Tara Tucker visited Sonoma State University on Oct. 11 to talk about her artwork and involvement in Creative Growth. She studied sculpture at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, receiving a Masters degree. Tucker emphasises in drawing and painting animals influenced by the human emotion and behaviour and inspired by her first few interactions with the animal kingdom, her mother’s taxidermy work. 

At an early age, Tucker was surrounded by animals (mostly stuffed) and drawings of animals after her mother volunteered to do taxidermy at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum. She helped the workers in the lab by collecting and numbering the bones and skeletons to be catalogued. At the age of fourteen, she was able to see Leonard Baskin’s illustrations of raptors at a natural history museum and was immediately inspired.

Her work began to consist of birds and her mother’s taxidermy and even incorporated orchids, plants and flowers into her work. 

“I think a lot about human emotion and behavior, and that usually dictates what type of animal I end up choosing” said Tucker during an interview for Juxtapoz magazine. 

Most of her work primarily consists of domestic animals paired with guinea pigs and monkeys. “I like the mix of wild with domestic” Tucker said. “I think it speaks about the unpredictability of the untamed, as opposed to the solidarity bred and familiar characteristics of the domestic animal.”

“I’ve seen her drawings on shopping bags in San Francisco,” said Sonoma State junior student Steve Schneider. Tucker’s 2008 “It’s Always The Same By” graphite piece was used for MAC bag on Modern Appealing Clothing in San Francisco. “Her work definitely has a Bay Area feel to it.”

Currently, Tucker works with disabled adults in teaching them how to make rugs at Creative Growth. “This is something I think is great and I am very proud of,” Tucker said during her lecture at Sonoma State. Creative Growth is a nonprofit organization that offers disabled artists a valuable platform for self expression by providing studio space and gallery representation. 

This space began over 40 years ago in Oakland, when six individuals opened their doors for disabled people to come in and make art. During that time, California had made a decision that people with developmental disabilities would not automatically live in hospitals but rather be institutionalized. They were provided with art materials and tools to work on their art pieces everyday. Over 40 years later, the center serves as a creative space for over 160 adults.