Tanya Tull is a Los Angeles-based artist and social entrepreneur who studied at the Claremont Colleges with Phil Dike, Jean Goodwin Ames, Paul Darrow and Douglas McClellan, among others (BFA, Scripps College, 1964). She then continued her art while also working and raising a family. Her life took a sharp turn in 1980, however, after reading an article in the LA Times about children living in Skid Row hotels. Within weeks she had incorporated a nonprofit organization, Para Los Niños (For the Children), intending to lead it for a year as a volunteer — and then return to painting. At the same time, the new arts community in Downtown LA had begun to take hold, as artists moved into studio lofts in converted warehouses. Tanya subleased a large art studio nearby and began painting on weekends — while working at Para Los Niños during the week. 

Based in LA’s Skid Row almost seven days a week, Tanya found herself with a “front row seat” as homeless people — including families with children — began appearing on the city streets. Unable to turn away, Tanya co-founded LA Family Housing in 1983 to develop housing and emergency shelters. In 1988, she founded both A Community of Friends (supportive housing for the homeless mentally ill) and Beyond Shelter (to move homeless families from shelters to permanent housing). She then worked nationally over the next 25 years to promote systemic change on a national scale.  Tanya firmly believes that it was her ability to “color outside the lines” that enabled her to apply her creative skills to solving challenging social problems. She compares it to an abstract painting that isn’t resolved but has the elements to envision in a new way.

Today, Tanya is painting prolifically again full-time. She is particularly proud of her artist son, Dani Tull (MFA Stanford), who shows both nationally and internationally and co-founded the Highland Park art gallery Odd Ark LA (2018-2023). Tanya’s uncle, Herman Cherry (1909-1992), was an early abstract expressionist painter of the New York school. Her brother, Neeli Cherkovski (1945-2024), was an internationally-acclaimed San Francisco poet and author.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Years ago, I painted large abstract canvases. That art has been slow to come back. What I have experienced instead is a steady movement forward, grateful that I have time at this point in my life to paint again. My work is infused with riotous color, shapes that keep changing as each piece evolves — and with layers of underpainting often showing through. When I paint, I enter a world in which nothing else exists except the process — each moment a private conversation between me and the canvas — with shapes and colors emerging that often surprise me. No, it doesn’t come back immediately — and it is absolutely NOT like riding a bike! My work has evolved over the past few years into a language that communicates not only the primordial essence and timelessness of the natural world around us — but also the “wild things” hidden within. Each stroke is a new moment in time – some of which will remain memorialized on the canvas when I am done. At the same time, much will be painted over and simply gone. But to know that it was once there is often enough.