Artist Statement

This painting is one in a series of “animated” still life paintings utilizing traditionally composed arrangements as scenes in which origami birds can playfully interact. This arrangement substitutes my more usual bold patterned rugs with a softer draping scarf along with iris from my garden and a blue and white bowl belonging to a dear friend. I am currently exploring how light, shadows and reflections can be used to add liveliness to an arrangement as well, leading and connecting viewers to the small scenes.

Biography

Oklahoma native, Tamara Sigler, has always loved the outdoors, and exploring areas of natural beauty, especially in Oklahoma, the desert Southwest and the Rocky Mountain States. Recent years have added the peaceful, green spaces surrounding her current northeast Ohio home to that list. As a young girl, she would sometimes find small “treasures” while exploring, which would be a launching pad for imagined scenarios about little worlds.

Tamara studied art at Kansas City Art Institute and earned her BFA from Oklahoma City University. She entered a career as a graphic designer, just as the field was transitioning from traditional to digital. “It was an exciting decade of creative growth and opportunity. The career path branched and led into some crazy and energetic years of balancing artistic endeavors with the requirements of being a stay-at-home parent. It now leads back to the world of a full time artist.”

She is at work on a “Life of Birds” series depicting still life subjects that are enlivened with directional elements and paper birds each with its own character. Her art reflects the strong colors and patterns inspired by her home and her travels, and showcase a contemporary approach to composition along with a love and respect for traditional painting techniques.

Tamara is the recipient of the Native Star Award and has shown by invitation in the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s Small Works, Great Wonders Show. She has had work displayed in the Butler Museum of American Art and participated in numerous galleries and juried shows, including the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society’s Best of America Small Paintings 2018, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s 12×12, Bosque Art Classic, Heroes and Outlaws: 100 Oklahomans by 100 Oklahoma Artists, and the Rusty Gables Spring Stampede .  Her painting “Trails End” received Best in Show at the Bauhaus Prairie Gallery’s Open a New Year show.

Tamara is a Spirit of the Buffalo artist, with two of her proposed designs accepted for the successful project sponsored by the Nature Conservancy in Oklahoma City. Her designs are included in The Spirit of the Buffalo, Oklahoma’s Past and Future by Linda Millier Bosteels.