The elements that construct the prism of perception in Tara’s works, are doubtlessly, with strong attachment to their emotional capacity, tearing sides between passion and discipline, accomplishment and performance.

As a New York born, Dutch-Scottish artist, raised in the Netherlands, the artist is based in Berlin since 2009. Originally a professional dressage horse trainer, Tara later completed a Masters in Information Law, followed by a Masters in Film Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Perfection and ‘self inflicted’ pressure within the discipline of dressage, but also in the systematic theoretical approach of law enhanced her tendency to obsessively compulsive behaviour and dissociation.

Therefore, Tara took on painting as a healing praxis to channel and utilise this behaviour and the intrinsic psychosomatic experiences. Through the intuitively fast working method Tara reached a level of contentment similar to when she would lose control when racing through the forests. A relief and contradiction to the structured dressage training. Since then she has entered a dialogue with the canvas, play and chase of form and shapes, colours and rhythm, notating her inner obsessions of order, systems and display.


The role of the Negative space, her art, signifies the subject itself. Negative space is most evident when the space around a subject, not the subject itself, forms a relevant shape, which becomes the effect as the "real" subject of an image.

The use of negative space is a key element her canvas compositions.
Negative space may be used to depict a subject by showing everything around the subject, but not the subject itself. The Use of negative space produces a sillouette of the subject, and in her rigorous mind and representation this subject is the body. Most often, she uses the approach to contrast the background and draw attention to the subjects, which then they are referred to the positive space.
Reversing the tones so that the space around the subject is printed black and the subject itself is left blank, however, causes the negative space to be apparent as it forms shapes around the subject. This optic proposition is marking the figure-ground reversal.
The artist goes back and forth in this principle, which makes the work complex and over layered.
The created physically and symbolically , “white space” brings us to identify with a term of separation.
Here she poses the main question-is the body part of a bigger body?Is the body a singular entity?why does the body distorts perceived by its own agency?What does it separates from?

This idea transfers and analogous to silence in music, but only when it is juxtaposed with adjacent musical ideas. As such, there is a difference between inert and active silences in music, where the latter is more closely analogous to negative space in art.
The idea of it is asking the viewer to open up the imagination and fill in the blanks,considering and improving the balance between negative space and positive space in a composition that is considered by the artist to enhance the depiction. This basic, but often overlooked, principle of drawing gives the eye a "place to rest," increasing the appeal of a composition through subtle means and colour choices.