Hey everyone!

I am Tara Lynn Pugh, I'm a multi media artist and creative instructor from the Harrison, Ohio. 

So, listen…  I’ve always been an outsider.  As a teen, I befriended art because I was socially awkward. I didn’t fit in.  I wasn’t anywhere near the cool kids table at lunch.  I never got invited to parties.  The harder I tried to be visible, the more invisible it made me.  I was never like other people; and it hurt.  I wasn’t musically inclined enough for the band.  I wasn’t metal enough for the tough crowd.  I wasn’t campy enough for the drama department.  I couldn’t hold a tune enough to be involved in theater.  I was too fat to be sporty.  I didn’t have a place.  My creativity was a solace, and there I stayed in my own dark little piece of the world. 

Art is where I had a home.  As I grew older, I continued to try all the things.  I lost weight.  I outgrew my angst.  I found my spirituality.  Somehow, I managed to become enough of a catch to get married two times.  Neither of which ended up working out very well in the end.  Want to know why?  I still didn’t love and accept me enough to embrace the person that I was designed to be.  I was faking it hoping to make it, and it caused my creative spirit to die inside. So, in true impulsive-me style, I ran away from the conflict.  I ran away from the anxiety.  I ran away from the obligation and the servitude.  I ran toward something promising and bright.  Only this time it worked out.  In the process of rebirth, I’ve learned so much.  I’ve learned to choose the people who choose me back, instead of chasing people who treat me like I’m invisible.  I’ve learned that I can go through crazy-painful things; and after the tears come and go, I come out the other side with a beating heart that I didn’t need a man to mend.  I learned who I am and how to enjoy time with myself.      

Then came the true test.  The art world is that same high-school lunch table.  Where do I sit?  Will they accept me?  There is an endless fury of art fairs and exhibition applications.  Yes, sometimes I feel like I don’t belong.   Sometimes I know people look at my work and say “she doesn’t belong here.”  Sometimes creatives gather, and I’m not included.  And for a moment I’m taken right back to high school; the knots in my chest when I couldn’t find a prom date or the hurt when I could hear people snickering about me.  Then I remind myself that isn’t me anymore.   I have new truths to live by. 

• I am a brave woman who isn’t afraid to have a voice.  I’ll show you who I am and I’ll do it through my art.

• I am an artist with the freedom to be weird, and quirky, and unusual.  I’ll shout it from the rooftops if I have the opportunity!

• I know who I am and who I want to be, and I don’t have to be the person others wanted me to become.   I don’t have to create what others want me to create.  

• I’m confident enough to be peculiar, I no longer desire to blend into the grey masses.  Underneath this resting-bitch-face exists a brightness and a spirit and I am daring enough to let that show in my work.  

• I love what I do so much that I don’t need to earn cheers and ribbons to continue doing it.  I want to share it with the world.  I want to share it with you.