Tehya Shea is an interdisciplinary artist with deep roots in the foothills of Northern California.
In childhood she began to experience and understand the possibilities of the textile arts. Always drawn to pattern and texture, visual aesthetic informed her path from the very beginning. Influenced by her various homes in the west: Colorado, New Mexico, California, she has developed her craft in the spirit of the pioneers from the past, the constant searchers. In her recent work she has come home. This is evident in the way that she weaves together her stories, instincts and collected memories into textural landscapes of reflection and transformation. Letting the imperfections of being human flow, Tehya allows for the wild and untamed to inform her creations. She takes the scattered, torn and forgotten and gently brings them together into a graceful and cohesive whole that pays homage to, and even requires, the inherent flaws of the individual pieces. The balance of dark and light, the honesty of rough and delicate give permission for imperfection to be honored as beauty.
Tehya's history reflects a deep connection to the natural world, mysticism and magic.
She gets a kick out of her early childhood pictures, in which she and her parents are dressed all in red and camping on lands between Northern California and the Rajaneesh commune in Oregon. She still has a weakness for the feel of burnt red velvet in her fingers.
Tehya lives and works on the Santa Barbara coast.