Pursuit 365 Day 106: Tatiana Gregoryanz

Tatiana Gregoryanz is fascinated by the wonderful things in nature and wants to highlight interesting personalities of the creatures and point out the similarities between all forms of life.

For a long time, Tatiana’s artistic interests focused on drawing, composition, and the drama of black and white photography. After years of sketching, painting with watercolours and acrylic, and several projects in mosaics, Tatiana discovered the art of warm glass and traditionally stained glass. Now this is her primary artistic focus.

Driven by curiosity and interest in storytelling Tatiana takes time to explore other media while creating a visual narrative. You can find her textile sculptures and polymer clay bas relief work in various art galleries and private collections.

My favourite thing to do is to express in my artwork the amazing things we all can see if we only allow ourselves to slow down and observe the world around us.

One of my favourite phrases to live by is: “Just do it, keep going.” So often, if you don’t quit too soon, you see the results, sometimes with beautiful surprises.

That possibility of creating something interesting and meaningful keeps me wanting to do more.

I grew up in an environment encouraging ambition.

I always felt that slowing my pace in the pursuit of success equalled giving up. This applied to everything in my life, and over time I started noticing that this approach doesn’t work in everything. It made me feel the pain of the defeat more acutely, – and more frequently, – than the excitement of success. Moreover, it made me feel isolated from others, as I was pushing for the win. And I really didn’t allow myself to just be.

Over time I was able to see the benefits of flexibility, patience, and kindness. I like the way psychologist Alison Gopnik illustrates this in the “carpenter” and “gardener” model.

Brought up as “the carpenter”, then trying to become “the gardener”, I now embrace the eternal dance of the two approaches.

And that was how I discovered joy. And, a bit unexpectedly, success.