Valley Verve: Tammy Ferrara finds inspiration everywhere

A glance at Tammy Ferrara’s Liberty Lake apartment confirms that she’s an artist. Her paintings are hung parlor-style on the wall adjacent to the front door and her workspace has a prominent spot in the main living area across from a deep futon where she can lounge between creative bursts.

Behind her painting area she’s attached 6-foot-tall panels to the wall onto which she has painted three life-sized recreations of Gustav Klimt’s paintings, including “The Kiss.”

Her own paintings are whimsical and filled with symbolism. One painting titled “Going With the Flow,” shows a mermaid flowing in a circular tide with goldfish. “It’s about going with the flow,” Ferrara said, “without strategy.”

Ferrara, 36, was born and raised in Massachusetts where, as a child, she would color using shadow and highlights. Her use of color was unconventional – green skies and blue grass – and she often pushed the limit with her toys by fitting a square peg into a round hole.

Instead of graduating from high school, she earned her GED and worked her way through college as a struggling single mom. She eventually graduated from Massasoit Community College with an associates’ degree in computer-aided graphic design and a minor in illustration.

She has worked as a graphic designer and currently works for Target Media.

“I feel like I live a double life. It’s like my brain has a mind of its own,” she said. “One half of my brain is a typical independent and responsible mind with a 9-to-5 job, yet the other half of my mind lives within a world full of mystery, sights, signs and symbols.”

The office/computer space in her apartment is a small nook filled with birds, butterflies and toys reflecting the dreamer within.

Ferrara moved to the area about 11 years ago with a man, but the relationship wasn’t right and things didn’t work out. A few years ago, she started painting again. Using acrylic paint, washes and some mediums for texture, she creates works with dreamlike qualities. She is inspired by everything around her. “I never have to go looking for ideas that spark my creativity,” she said. “I just sit back and wait for the incoming data.”

She “goes with the flow,” painting symbolic images that contain familiar elements, including angels.

“I love the act of leaving the world of reality and drifting off into my own creative art world where there are no boundaries or limitations,” she said.

Not only does she enjoy creating worlds, she also enjoys creating for the world.

“I create in hopes that within our human relation, no matter what form or fashion that may be, that we can contribute some beautiful facet from within ourselves out to society and its people,” she said.

Ferrara referred to John Lennon’s song “Imagine” and said, “I imagine. I am a dreamer. I imagine a day when everyone finds their own personal and unique beauty within them, allowing themselves to shine forth … .”

Her paintings reflect her desires and are filled with beautiful worlds and images, often childlike but always familiar because we were all children once. Just recently she began showing at Art, Music and More at the Spokane Valley Mall and has made some sales.

“I feel so honored that people can see and read between the lines of my creations,” she said.