Artist Statement/Bio
Tiff Graham (TiGra) is a visual artist/ethnographer/cultural specialist whose art work combines painting, photography, digital illustration, mixed media, electronics, virtual reality, and videography. Then there is her writing, which is eclectic and highly researched because doctoral degrees do that to a person. Currently she is writing about parades, protests marches, science fiction, technology, environments, foodways, and other things related to being human.
Her visual artwork is often some alternate reality, based on real life experiences and field research of festive events/foodways/folk beliefs/material culture. Inspired by many artists whose work suggests: a narrative such as Frank Romero and Chris Roberts-Antieu; a curious humorous interpretation of a world as with album covers from Parliament Funkadelic, Beastie Boys, and Scientist (dub); and an experimental approach as with 3d blow-your-mind video art installations of Marco Brambilla. Traditional folk art aesthetics and wallpaper are influential in shaping her work and ideas too, almost as much as cultural anthropology and science fiction/speculative fiction. Of course, there is always a daily source of inspiration drawn from newspapers, online material, tv /streaming shows, movies, books, people, and dogwalks. If there were a dream for her writing style, it would to be more Chuck Klosterman-y.
Professional Background
Lecturer at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California teaching courses that emphasize ethnographic fieldwork, anthropology, cultural critique, visual media, art propaganda, science fiction, and technology. She has worked a variety of jobs as University of California Los Angeles teaching fellow, tech writer, industrial hygienist/investigator/inspector for the U.S. Department of Labor, comedy club waitress, tennis instructor, camp counselor, risk assessment intern at BP oil, environmental health intern at an engineering firm, grape farm laborer in France, reader for Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic, video editor/website designer, t-shirt seller/nanny for a cool Bluegrass band, and so on. She imagined she would be an internationally traveling, professional mountain biker, band member, filmmaker, but no longer feels this way.
Educational Background
University of California Los Angeles (Ph.D. Culture with Cultural Studies/Ethnographic approach); Medical College of Ohio/University of Toledo (M.S. Occupational Health, Environmental Health work); University of Missouri Columbia (B.A. English, Science emphasis); and Indiana University Bloomington (1 year, Chemistry major); UCLA (1 and 1/2 years, Public Health graduate program, Community Health Sciences, then transferred departments)
www.tiffgraham.com
www.paradehistory.com
