Meet the Artist

I'm Tanya Smith -- artist, photographer, and someone who has never been able to walk past a rusted, broken gate or a pile of discarded fabric without stopping.

I've spent my career finding beauty in the places most people overlook. As a photographer, it was the crumbling wall behind the subject, the peeling paint, the worn edges of a space that told the real story. That hasn't changed. I just found a different way to work with it.

Now I work with reclaimed and found materials -- fabric, paper, pulp, whatever carries evidence of a previous life. The rust, the fray, the soft collapse of something that's been used and set aside. That's not damage to repair or work around. That's the material.

I hand-dye, hand-stitch, and work slowly. Each piece takes time -- mine and the material's.

If you bring one of these pieces into your home, I hope you feel that same contradiction. Something that looks fragile and worn is still beautiful. A reminder that what feels like it's barely holding together is often, in hindsight, something whole.

I live and work in Niagara, Ontario Canada

~t