Tanya Pirasteh
Graduation Year: 2001
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Type of Creative: Visual Artist
What They Do: Tanya is a visual artist who focuses on drawing. She teaches various drawing methods at the Priscilla R. Tyson Cultural Arts Center.
Their Journey: Since graduating from Wellington in 2001, Tanya's path to visual arts was unexpected. It was during a period of uncertainty that she decided to attend art school, where she discovered her calling. Tanya studied Drawing and Small Metals at Columbus College of Art & Design and has been teaching ever since.
Tanya's time in the creative space lives between being a practicing artist and a teacher. Most of her time is spent working with students, facilitating their development and working daily on her own body of work. Her art explores themes of identity through painting, drawing, and sculpture.
The Wellington Impact: Tanya believes Wellington provided her with a strong foundation, shaping her into a persistent and resourceful artist, which is required to overcome the challenges of being a full-time creative. The skills she developed in analyzing and critiquing literature in upper school translated into her ability to critically analyze art. This foundation was instrumental in her artistic growth. Tanya reflects, “At Wellington, I viewed my main expressive outlets as English and literature, which may not seem connected to the visual arts, but in reality, they are. A large part of studying art is learning to analyze it critically, and it was at Wellington that I first started developing that skill—a crucial one for any artist. Wellington instilled key principles that have helped me navigate the challenges of being a full-time maker."