“Massive and Gentle Presences,” Three Paintings by Tessa Hayashida
Tessa Hayashida is a longtime CAI mentor and trainer, and a new PhD candidate at the University of Saint Andrews, where her writing will focus on the gospel of Luke. She holds an M.A. in Classical Theology from Talbot School of Theology, and is a member of Beruna, a Christian community house in Whittier, California with four others who live patiently and prayerfully, practicing hospitality for dear friends.
Instagram: @tessa_mariem93
“If you were to ask my parents, they would probably tell you that I have been an artist all my life. And I think that is true in one sense. But in another sense, I don’t have many credentials here.
“I have never been trained, nor studied other artists’ work, nor do I have a conscious memory of choosing to be an artist. And I surely never intended to become a watercolorist. It just sort of happened to me. Even calling myself a watercolorist feels a bit presumptuous – but, here we are.
“For me, art-making has always been an act of play instead of professionalism. I jump into each project fast with little planning, and the end result always surprises me for better or for worse. I like it this way.
“A friend of mine recently described my paintings as those that capture ‘massive and gentle presences.’ I like that too. It puts words to the experience I often have of sitting down to a blank page, and anywhere between one to twenty-three hours later, meeting the image of something that I rarely intend, and that seems to have come to the page with a will of its own entirely.”
Click any image below to fit it to your screen.
“Transfiguration 1”
“Magnolia 2”
“Mary of Beruna”
