ABOUT ME
So, where to start? My name is Tara J. Brannigan. I grew up in Michigan, where I spent a great deal of my childhood wandering around and exploring nature. In mid-2013 I made a major decision and moved from Seattle to Wellington, New Zealand. I have a day job in the video game industry, where my primary focus is enabling better communication between customer, development and marketing.
When I come home each day I focus on my other passion: Making jewelry, costumes and other odd bits of ornamentation. I have been obsessed with the transformative and symbolic power of personal ornamentation for as long as I can remember. While it may not be what I do for a living, I absolutely love it, and have devoted much of my personal time to that effect.
ARTIST STATEMENT
So let me just start by saying that I’ve never been particularly good with these sorts of things. I make what I make because it makes sense to me at that point in time, in whatever odd way that might be. Sometimes serious, sometimes completely whimsical in nature.
Stolen from my interview with Another Passion:
Many of my materials come from old thrift store fur coats, scraps from taxidermy road kill and the ‘waste’ bits from various industries. I treasure the idea of creating a new and fantastic object from that which might ordinarily be discarded or left to rot; Rebirth and transformation via reuse of the material in a new way.
I do not intend to make light of or ignore the very real nature of the organic materials. Very few of them are not the product of the death of a living being, either accidental or otherwise. In utilizing such things, I strive to create a sort of bridge between the material as a dead ‘thing’ and the life it previously belonged to, either symbolically or through direct association.
A horn serves as protection and aggression, as it might have in life. A barnacle shell scavenged from the beach holds a secret treasure, transforming the shipyard pest into a guardian of simple beauty. It is my hope that when someone comes into contact with something I’ve made using these components, they can take the time to think about what really went into it, and consider the life or lives that lay behind its creation.
EDUCATION
Welding I
Vance Wolfe at Pratt, Seattle, Wa – Winter 2011
Metal Masquerade Masks
Catherine Grisez at Pratt, Seattle, WA – October 2010
Jewelry Technician Intensive
Revere Academy, San Francisco, CA – Fall 2009
Zengineering
Andy Cooperman at Pratt, Seattle, WA – Summer 2009
Jewelry I
Susanne Osborn at Pratt, Seattle, WA – Spring 2009
PUBLICATIONS
2012 – How Geek Girls Will Rule the World
2014 (Pending) – On Body and Soul: Contemporary Armor to Amulets
WARNING
Do not engage me in a prank war. Nothing motivates me more than a good prank, and I will escalate as necessary.
