Author: Tiffany Gilliam
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What’s your prologue? I first wrote my thesis WARHOLS’ WAKE in 2019. At the time, I was proud and am still proud to discuss creative consciousness but over the years, I grew to learn there is more to say. More context. These artists didn’t just drop out of the sky like aliens. Duchamp, Warhol, Duchamp,…
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Transit(1) the conveyance of persons or things from one place to another(2) a system engaged in such transportation(3) an act of passing through or over(4) change, transition I recently discovered that through the university where I teach, students, faculty and staff can ride the city micro transit bus for free. For someone who has always…
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Year Two In one week, I begin my second year of PhD coursework (year two of three!) before I even reach the next mountain: comprehensive exams. To get there, I’ll need to become bilingual and complete an extensive additional reading list, on top of classes and research. Then, once comps are passed comes the dissertation,…
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Wrap-up: The Difference Between Nothing and Something There’s this lovely brain space that opens up when you’re deep in a long project. It’s not quite obsession, not quite devotion, but a focused something in between. My mind rearranging itself around a task. To be clear, I started painting in a bathroom. Easily trivial, forgettable. But it…
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If you’re just tuning in: I’ve been turning a downtown bathroom into a mural — part confession booth, part existential doodle, part “is the person that painted this okay?” If you pay attention, life is strange a lot of the time. Today, while bouncing between mural layers and mild delusion, I saw a coffee shop…
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On outlines, color hacks, and trash that isn’t trash. The purple flowers in the women’s bathroom are coming to life — I added brown outlines yesterday, and they’re giving everything more structure, more focus. Funny how one color can change the entire energy of a wall. I also started in the men’s bathroom. The boys…
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In which I paint a wall, confront a blank space, and remember who I’ve always been. I’ve never been afraid of a blank space. Many people see a white wall or a blank page and feel pressure to fill it. I see it and feel invited. Excited. Hopeful. No expectations, just potential. There’s a metaphor…
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I love words, definitions, names, names of things and naming things. When we are born, a vernacular is selected to identify the specific human body and soul bag within a tiny human that 2 people created. This is mine. “Tiff” A petty quarrel. Usually small. Often between people who care about each other.“Petty” means something…
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A phenomenological investigation into the weights and measures of human worth. A first-semester PhD candidate’s reflection on race, rhetoric, and the quiet weight of being seen. There’s a lyric in the Christmas hymn O Holy Night that I’ve loved my entire life: “Till He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.” I don’t need to…
Tiffany Petty Gilliam 