about

Tiffany Besonen, that is me. This photo was taken in
January 2007, just before I took down my solo
show Ambiotic at the SOHO20 Gallery in Chelsea, NYC.
These sculptures and two large painted collage panels
were made from translucent sewing pattern paper.

I grew up on a sheep farm in North-Central Minnesota, 
left rural life for ten years and returned fifteen years 
ago when my suburban boyfriend (now husband) 
proposed and then shocked me by wanting to live in 
the middle of nowhere Minnesota, yet in the center 
of everything I truly need.

At age ten, this was my first lamb, Pepsi.
Will never forget those crunchy Spring mornings
when I would run down to the barn hoping to
find more newborn lambs.

I teach art to brilliant middle and high schoolers in a 
small school, about 50 students per grade level. I am 
a mom to two creative young girls, and that suburban 
boy has transformed into quite a renaissance man. I 
make art in the back of my classroom, in our century-
old farmhouse kitchen, outside in the summer, and 
sometimes in the winter, when suffering from light 
deprivation, I drag my work into the woods, suspend it 
from trees and document how the elements deteriorate 
it, as I slowly come back to life. 

Having once belonged to an artists' cooperative in 
Chelsea, Manhattan and flying to New York a couple 
times a year, I had my ear on the pulse of the art world. 
It was a great experience, but when I stepped away
from that artist cooperative in 2007, I began to 
more clearly hear my own pulse and voice. Perhaps it 
comes with age no matter where you are, but truly 
listening to my own pulse means that I am no longer  
drowning it out with the static of constantly seeking 
far-away muses. I know what I am missing, and it 
can wait so that I don’t have to miss out on nearby 
subtleties--the everyday, heart-twinging beauty that 
quietly begs to be heard. 

To contact, tibesonen@gmail.com