Tonya Clay Fine Art

My work intends to reveal the process of a human mind processing life in the mind through the body. The content of my work is layered on many levels and deals with spirituality, history, social constructs,  gender, and sexuality. Viewers should relate to their physical bodies, and be reminded of their own personal histories, dreams, fears, fantasies and future projections. My work causes viewers to examine their comfort levels, and consider their own existence. It intends for viewers to be seduced by the vibrant and deliberate color schemes that recall dreams, and mystical events. With further consideration, this visceral experience becomes an intellectual one. Viewers of my art will have a physical, psychological, intellectual and emotional experience that shines light on social and personal dynamics. More than just echo the sensations of being human, it should offer hope, show pathways to coping, and personal evolution. Art is a direct means of accessing the truth to questions about human life that people consider or avoid most. Viewers are caused to question their familiar existence, to look beyond the surface, to become aware.

Within my paintings night can become day, as inside space becomes outside space. In the three dimensional painting, The Annunciation: Waters of March, winter can also be seen changing into summer.  The Christian and art historical narrative of the Annunciation is one that I have revisited since a series of paintings made at age twelve. As the concept evolves in my works, so does the personal and social narrative ascribed to it.

My art is created based on complex compositional structures that involve the representation of a variety of spaces simultaneously in one work. In many of my paintings space extends beyond two-dimensional boundaries into organic three dimensional shapes. The two dimensional surface is relief in some areas up to ten inches.  Fabric, wood and polymer clay come out into the space of the viewer. 

The application of paint and other media in my work varies from loose to meticulously rendered. The paint is thickly applied and opaque in some areas and very thin and translucent in others. There are pencil and pen marks, writing turns in to forms.

The physical process of making the work is as important as the finished product. Each act of making a mark, or pushing clay into form, is transferring energy into the surface, and in effect imbuing the work with life. The resulting marks reflect a state of mind as handwriting does. 

Not only are ideas conveyed in the finished work, but human consciousness is revealed.  In the same way that an electroencephalogram reveals brain activity, or as lines of an EKG records the functions of the heart, mark making documents a life and reveals the true mental/emotional status of a human being. 

-Tonya Clay

Master of Fine Art 

Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY     

Bachelor of Fine Art

University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign  

SELECTED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE  

*Artist/Owner ,  Tonya Clay Fine Art,  

Anna Maria Island Florida, FL    May 2000- Present  

*Faculty in Art History

Hillsborough Community College, Tampa FL  2015 - Present  

*Faculty in Studio Art and Art History

University of Tampa, Tampa FL   

2015 - 2017  

*Faculty in Studio Art and Art History,   

State College of Florida   

Bradenton FL  

2011 - 2015   

*Visiting Assistant Professor of Studio Art,   

Davidson College, Davidson, NC    

2006 -2008  

*Faculty in Studio Art: Ringling College of Art, Sarasota FL   

2002-2003  

*Instructor, Stony Brook University,   

Stony Brook NY  

1998- 1999  

Courses Taught:    

Art Appreciation(Art History) Form and Idea(Art History) Understanding Visual Art(Art History) Foundation Design(Studio) Two-Dimensional Design(Studio)  

Foundation Drawing(Studio) Drawing I(Studio) Figure Drawing(Studio) Color Fundamentals(Studio) Beginning Painting(Studio) Figure Painting With Oils(Studio) Sculptural Practice(Studio) 

*Manager of Fine Art Gallery, 

Chappell Gallery,   

West Chelsea Arts Building, 

New York, NY 

October 2000- February 2002/Full Time   

and continuing through 2013   

on special projects and exhibitions