ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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TANYA TEWELL

I was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, one of thirteen children.   I received a full academic scholarship and was thus able to attend college.  I subsequently received a B.S. in art education and, some years later, an M.F.A. in painting and drawing.  I lived in Arizona for almost fifteen years and was profoundly influenced by Hispanic culture and the desert landscape. I have worked extensively as a freelance illustrator and enjoyed illustrating for books, magazine, and newspaper articles.

After teaching briefly at public schools in South Phoenix, where the majority of the students were either Hispanic or Native-American, I came to realize the power of visual arts in motivating students. I then decided to teach art at the college level and have been teaching as an associate professor in Tennessee for the past ten years. I continue to work diligently at developing my painting and am inspired by my dreams, the eccentricities of the people around me, and the beauty of the hilly landscape in Tennessee. I live on an isolated farm on Short Mountain with a number of goats, horses, cats, and birds, and my husband John Sanborn who is a professor of social work.