Meet Tammie Lane: Painter and Potter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tammie Lane and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tammie, what role has risk played in your life or career?
You have to experiment and try new things. You will have a lot of things not go the way that you imagined, but the disasters are as important or more important even than the things that go without a hitch. You learn tons from the mistakes. Yes, sometimes it is that, this is not the direction I want to go! That is also unbelievably valuable. Getting too comfortable with one thing that sells, is a trap that will just kill your artwork. You have to keep experimenting and moving forward. If you don’t do that, you lose that messy vitality that comes with trying things that you want to just see where it will go.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a full time artist in Aspen, Colorado. I paint oil paintings and watercolors. Besides painting, I produce ceramic work specializing in Raku, a Japanese style of firing. Three different mediums with one dedicated artist. Doing three very different mediums and loving all of them, has kept me excited to go to the studio for 40 years. Starting my career after receiving my BFA in Art from Oklahoma, I worked for a few years for Hallmark Cards as an illustrator. Corporate art did not hold my attention for long, and I moved from Kansas City to Aspen, Colorado and opened my own illustration and design studio. For the next 25 years I juggled my commercial illustration work doing work for national clients, with fine art work for galleries around the United States. In 2007, I opened my own gallery in Aspen. It was a great experience but I missed the simplicity of going to work and just producing my own work, so I made big changes again. I became a Resident Artist for the Redbrick Center for the Arts. I am also an adjunct professor for CMC teaching watercolor, and show with several fine art galleries. I travel doing Plein Air Festivals painting throughout the summer. Being an artist is the best job in the world. That being said, it is not an easy road and has its challenges esp. during a pandemic. The lessens of choosing the life of a working artist is always to embrace the challenges and have a ton of perseverance. If you don’t have that, you will not survive as there are surely easier ways to make a living. That being said, there isn’t anything I would rather do for a living. My passion for my work makes me feel like I am the luckiest person getting to do work that keeps me excited every day. If we could all be so lucky!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would take them on my horses up in the mountains. Away from everything where the views are the best on the planet. I would bring the tent and bring the best food and wine to make over a campfire and enjoy the beauty of the high country from the back of a horse. Waterfalls of clear sparkling mountain water, wildflowers better than anything that could be planted, the sky so bright with stars every night with no city lights, a mountain hot spring to soak in…as great as Aspen is downtown, it can’t compare! I had a friend from Germany come a few years ago and we went up in the mountains and she couldn’t believe it. As she said, there is nowhere in Germany that you can travel around for days totally on your own and not see anyone for days. It doesn’t get better than that to me. That’s my idea of the best week ever with a friend. Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
If I could, I would say the shoutout would have to go to my Mom. She isn’t with us anymore, but she was the one steady, wonderful voice that noticed even the smallest of victories and always made me see that I was moving forward in my search for creating things of beauty. There have been so many good teachers, mentors, fellow artists, and friends on this long journey but it is always the soft voice of my mother saying “Congrats, I’m so proud of all your hard work” that whispers in my ear whenever anything goes my way in my career as an artist.

Website: www.tammielane.com
Instagram: tammielaneart
Facebook: tammielane
Other: Pinterest – Tammie Lane

Image Credits
my own shots