Harriet Myfanwy Nia Tahany

Artist, mother, lover, dreamer, mind traveller and believer in the infinite possibilities that life is.

I am originally from Swansea in South Wales and spent most of my childhood living in the South East urban environment of inner city London, my family being of Irish decent, moved to the stunning rural countryside of Co. Leitrim Ireland when I was sixteen, where I live to date now with my beautiful family: my husband and two sons. I studied Fine Art at Sligo IT and went on to Graduate with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at the University of Ulster.

My artwork is multidisciplinary created with charcoal, oils, acrylics, spray paints, resins and many different combinations through mixed media works. Creating art is a very integral part of me, I am very passionate about my journey of self discovery through my artworks, the work is personal beneath the formal explored themes, ideas and inspirations they contain. The artwork becomes an energy container that acts as a personal archive of memory, a recording of some emotive expression of me; it is through art I gain knowledge of myself.

My exhibition and more thematic work is mainly narrative based artworks, always featuring distinctive big eyed feminine characters. Much of my work has been an ongoing exploration of themes inspired by fairy tales, folk-law, nursery rhymes, mythology and the metaphysical realms of non-linear narratives these stories occupy. I grew up with these stories and enjoyed fantasy genres where animals could talk and magic is real. These stories provided an ongoing source of inspiration and exploration for me, there is something special about the way the narrative stays with me, in its enchanting simplicity, transporting me to another world full of wonder and adventure. They challenge me to make sense of these other worlds and stimulate my imagination to steer a way through them. By exploring these characters I find myself put in their place, finding metaphors and real world wisdom, the stories act as a transformational tool, the concept of ‘self’ becomes transformed as the images and allegories in these stories stay with me, even after returning to the ‘real’ world.

My artworks like myself are ever changing and developing, I am always open to new projects and opportunities to learn and grow as an artist in everything I do.

— Harriet Myfanwy Nia Tahany