The Ethereal Plane
An Interview with Tara Hogan
After Tara Hogan agreed to do an interview for Trap Door Sun we scheduled a short "meet-n-greet" call. Two hours later we were fast friends. The conversation didn't linger on the surface. Things like, "How's the weather up your way?" or "So, how often do you update your Facebook status?" were not part of the discussion.
No. We talked of beauty, art versus commerce, compromising your art to pay a mortgage, aged materials and her passion of faraway Iceland. Tara views herself as an engineer who works at organizing space. She is concerned for the artistic and spiritual well being of our country, "The whole country has become Las Vegas … but truth will prevail." And wants to be part of the solution to bring beauty back, "I know things are broken, we've gotten lost in quantity … I want to be a positive contributor to the solution."
She wants to fix things with beauty.
Our conversation mirrored the autumn leaves—bright, colorful, honest. Tara is our friend. We think that after reading her interview you'll want to be her friend as well. Or at least you'll want to purchase her work, which is the closest thing to knowing Tara … bright, colorful, honest.
And though we may not have figured out where beauty comes from, we know you can experience a bit of it in our conversation with Tara Hogan. Enjoy.
TDS: You once said, "It is more difficult to be simple and edit out all the noise." You execute this in your work, how do you execute it in your personal life?
HOGAN: I have frequently purged my living space and cupboards. Your environment has a lot to do with how you feel. If you live in a cluttered messy space chances are you will feel cluttered too. I donate a lot of clothes to rescue missions and friends. This way my wardrobe is not a series of static elements sitting waiting to be worn. I can easily get dressed and know what I have to wear. The kitchen space is very important. It only has the food that I know will sit well in my body. It has been a long road to get to this place but it is possible. You just have to keep tweaking things. Letting things go. I also have a yoga practice and teach regularly. There is a small room in our house now that I use as my little practice space. I sit still as much as I can and also walk. It clears the mind's distractions and creates space. When you have no mental space or physical space, the body being overloaded with dead food, no nutrients from live foods, you feel stuffed. And, when we feel stuffed, we stuff more and become complicated messes.
TDS: Do you think that people complicate life with too much noise?
HOGAN: Mainstream society complicates things way too much. For example, look at the news. If you could even sit down and watch five minutes it is terribly complicated and full of mayhem. An unorganized thrown together mess. Society makes excuses for their behavior, uses band-aids to cover up the root problem. If we could just sit back and lose the ego for one moment then maybe we could create some stillness through the media, government, and education system.
Most people are ramped up. They have all these to do lists and plans. There is terrible dead plastic food being served in many places. It complicates the entire central nervous system and mind. The more pollution you put in the more you put out. We could learn a lot from going camping a few times a year and sleeping in a tent. You may come home and realize you do not even need a bed anymore. Think about it, the $1600 mattress set, bed frame, and all the sheet sets, etc., could be eliminated or pared down. The more you have the more you want. The less you have the more you can breathe.
TDS: What does the simplistic beauty in your art say about you as a person?
HOGAN: I am honest and based in nature. Nature is more powerful than me. The subtle details in my work stem from the ethereal plane. I let my intuition be the guide.
TDS: Do you think beauty points to truth?
HOGAN: Someone said beauty is in the eye of the beholder and beauty is only skin deep. It is true. The more beauty you feel inside from being kind hearted the more you will see it everywhere, even in obstacles. If you are one of those kind-hearted people then your messages of beauty are true. Otherwise, beauty can be misconstrued as seeing only the material plane.
TDS: You've been on your own (as Ink+Wit) now for a while. What are some things you've learned along the way as it relates to: your art, owning your own business, work/life balance, feeling inspired versus just getting the work done?
HOGAN: To be concise I would say business plans are good but like the weather they change. I had all these different ideas for INK+WIT and myself when I started in 2004. Some of them stuck around and some disappeared. Little by little I carved out small steps to evolve my vision and goals. I have always been a person to keep my old ideas and recycled ideas for when the time is right. I knew I would try a lot of different approaches to making and marketing my work and style.
On owning a business, it is important to remember why you started it and your role as the owner. Are you going to wear a lot of hats or delegate responsibility? I wear all the hats except the printing hat. I outsource to two very lovely printers here in the U.S.
It is a challenge to balance a business with your personal life. Often, it can become intertwined, especially if you work from home like I do. I have to set boundaries and be my own HR department. I have to allow myself to stop working at 5pm and take the weekends off. There have been weeks where I worked everyday for 12hrs a day. Not healthy, unless you're in one of those positive creative rhythms where you just cannot help yourself. However, I remember those weeks being dull of projects that were dragging me down.
The whole getting the work done vs. inspiration is interesting because sometimes you start off with a great commercial project you are fired up about and it gets so overworked by the client it is a matter of just finishing it. That attitude never becomes my goal but the zest in the creative process becomes lost. When we are all of a sudden rushed and can hardly think straight. The projects that start and end the best for me are always the ones I do not look for. I sit and draw to design on the computer, take photos, and just play. The best art and design to me still feels like it has a bit of gesture drawing in it. It is a little rough but polished enough to get the full harmony and impact.
TDS: TDS interviewee Marc Bryd said, “I have yet to see something as beautiful as a tree.” What is the most spectacular thing you've seen? What made it so special?
HOGAN: Iceland is the most spectacular thing I have even seen. It is a landscape full of vast space and environmental awareness. The geothermal pools, waterfalls, volcanic rock, mountains, and water are pure truth in a landscape. They're left alone. The integrity of the land is at peace. It is sacred ground. The Icelandic people appreciate their natural habitat. They know it is greater than them and that is beautiful.
TDS: You say that you've been shaped by your early surroundings: weathered materials, the shore, animals, etc. If we are, as humans, shaped by our surroundings how important is it to be intentional about the kind of environments and cultures we create?
HOGAN: My guru Dharma Mittra says, “same attracts same”. If you want to be in a certain culture then hang around with like-minded people. If you want to create world peace spread it. Be peace. Be wisdom. If you are angry, violent, harming others including animals, then your environment may be the same. And, you may not see it because it may be in your mind and body.
TDS: As a trained Yogi, you understand and pursue meditation. Talk about the importance of reflection as it relates to your work and personal life? What have you learned from cultivating such a lifestyle?
HOGAN: Concentration comes before meditation in the yogic scriptures. You cannot fully be in meditation until the mind is fully concentrated. I have learned to concentrate and focus on my goals and ideas before I set them into motion. The stillness in meditation and yogic tapas (disciplines) create awareness of the true self. When you have this awareness and stillness you can be fully concentrated in your intentions whatever they may be. Otherwise, you may have a noisy mind and create noisy work and receive noisy response. When we weed out the static and cultivate silence in the mind we can truly see what it is we are going to do.
TDS: If there could only be one season of the year all the time, which would it be?
HOGAN: Well, trick question, a yogi is either hot or cold. But, if I had to pick I would say spring. It is a time for renewal and cleanse.
TDS: What is your vision for the future of INK+Wit? What do you see yourself doing in 10 years?
HOGAN: My vision for INK+WIT is for it to grow into a global online space for people to experience my work, read my writing, and connect to the knowledge that has been blessedly given to me in this lifetime regarding yoga, peace, and creativity. I do not want only a retail space where I house my work. I want to house an online space and maybe someday traveling giving lectures/workshops on the power of creation through stillness. Yogic creativity. Ten years comes quick and within range I see myself traveling quite frequently to do creative raw vegan food demonstrations and yoga workshops. A storefront is in place. But, again, not just a retail space, but a space based in the feeling of calm and intention of well being to enjoy life. That’s could morph into many thanks. But, one thing is clear, I am doing nothing. It is all happening on its own.
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