Tara Donovan

 Tara Donovan was born in New York, New York in 1969; she now lives and works out of Brooklyn. She attended the School of Visual arts in New York from 1987-88 and received her BFA at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington D.C. in 1991. She also attended Virginia Commonwealth University in 1999 where she earned her MFA. Before becoming an artist she had a day job of waiting tables. She didn't quit this job until 2003, when she opened her first show and it was a breakout success.
She uses everyday object manufactured by companies around the world and morphs them into art work that is large scale. Since the piece are so enormous they take very tedious work to be put together and taken apart. Materials that she has worked with so far include paper plates, straws, Styrofoam cups, and tape. In interviews Tara states that she chooses her materials before she decides what to do with them. She says her artistic process is to take an object and think of it expanding into the millions. Her work mimics the way nature is in the fact that it mimics how things actually grow. For example, trees do not just have one leaf, they have hundreds, just like how Donovan's piece wave does not just have one cup, but millions.
She has been working in the artist field for over a decade and over that span of time has made

hundreds of pieces that not only comment on how nature revolves around the world, but how world revolves around nature. She pays and exquisite amount of attention to detail and texture that her materials, once repeated over and over again, ensue upon the viewer. Also, she is very in touch with the inherent physical properties of the materials she is working with, and how repetition of those properties can have a life long effect on a viewer.
I think that Tara Donovan's pieces are extremely amazing! She is a true trail blazer for the art of the future. I think that what makes her different and unique also makes her special and memorable. It does not really matter if she is not what the art industry thinks of as contemporary or up to day with what they think art should be now, she is a true artist. I believe art is something that should make you question is that art? Do I think that this is appealing to more than just my eye? What do other think? Art should make you question what types of things should be placed in a gallery and that is exactly what Donovan does.
The most stunning piece of work that she has crated would have to be the paper plate balls I think. I think that that way that the paper curves from being pressed together when packaged and the way the Donovan plays with and in the end really extenuates that fact is really beautiful!

This is one of my favorite pieces of all time. I have always been a fan of hers, and have even seen a few works of hers myself. I think that they are all beautiful and really have an impact of the viewers that have the rare chance to see them. I think that the most interesting thing is that she take everyday, ordinary things and makes them extraordinarily beautiful! I also think that the way that she handles criticism is very unique. She does not care who likes or does not like her work. That is not why she makes it. She makes it to make you think about what you use and how everyday items can in fact be beautiful.