Tessa Kalman
Painting, Photography
Tessa graduated from the Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in Medical Illustration. She spent the following 31 years at the Dayton VA Medical Center, where she led illustration, graphic design, and print production services, retiring in 2021 to devote herself fully to her art.
Through workshops and continuing education, Tessa has studied under nationally recognized artists, such as Andy Evansen, Keiko Tanabe, Eric Michaels, David R. Smith, and Janet Rogers. She has worked across a wide range of media, including watercolor, pen and ink, pastel, oil, acrylic, photography, and clay sculpture. Her work has been featured in local and regional exhibitions, including several solo shows. In 2022, she joined the Fairborn Art Association and the Western Ohio Watercolor Society, where her paintings have since won top awards and found buyers in juried local competitions. She was elected president of the Western Ohio Watercolor Society in 2024, a role she continues to hold, and is a trustee on the executive board of the Ohio Watercolor Society.
When I decide on a scene to paint or a photograph to compose, it usually falls into one of two “vision” categories to which I find myself consistently drawn.
The first is the unusual — scenes that inspire celebration of their beauty, grandeur, or rarity: a dramatic sky, a mountainous landscape, the kinds of moments most people would notice and find worthy of art. I love the challenge of translating that universal sense of awe into a piece that makes the viewer say, “Yes — that’s it!”
The second is quieter. A subtle scene or ordinary subject will catch my eye and ask me to look closer, to consider why it deserves attention at all. Often, it’s an interesting play of light and dark, a pleasing harmony of color, or simply a moment of everyday life that holds unexpected charm when captured as a single snapshot in time.
I enjoy working at both ends of this spectrum, but I increasingly find the greatest satisfaction in noticing the common - even mundane - moment and making the case for its relevance.
Flamingo Fracas
14" x 20"
Watercolor