Tessa Russell

Ko wai koe?
Kei te taha o tōku mama, Ko Moumoukai te maunga teitei, Ko Waitirohia e pupu rere ana ki Ngā Nuhaka ngā awa, Ko Takitimu te waka tapu, Ko Ngāti Rakaipaaka te iwi, Ko Jaqueline Parekura Pani tōku mama. Ko Robert George Grieve Russell tōku papa, No Kōtirangi (Scotland) ōna mātua. Ko Tessa-Jane Caroline Russell ahau, anei ngā hope hope o Rongomaiwahine, ngā tukemata nui o Kahungunu, ā, te mana motuhake o te iwi Māori me te iwi Kōtirangi.

Where are you living/working right now?
Kei Whakatiki au e noho ana, he Poutaki Kohinga Taonga Māori ahau. I live in Upper hutt with my two tamariki, aside from being a mama and an artist I am the Taonga Māori Collections Manager at Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.

What do you do and why do you do it?
Everything I do is for my kids.

What are you working on at the moment?
I always have a few things on the slow burn. Many of my works lately, like these I will be showing at Enjoy, have been created to help me navigate my emotions and feelings of helplessness with everything going on in the world at the moment and within my personal life.

What do you love about art?
It helps me express what I can't articulate.

What are you reading/listening to/watching at the moment?
This weeks library haul is Māori Death customs by R.S.Oppenheim and Love me! by Marianne Power. Listening to MĀ. Watching Derry girls and Mo.

Who is your art crush?
Too many to name them all, and across so many different genres, lucky for me a lot are now friends.

If you had one wish for the art world what would it be?
No wishes. Just, the art world is the world, the world without art is like the world without the taiao, nothing.