Art Reception - Flattened But Not Forgotten by Tasha Depp

Saturday, January 31, 2026, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Join us for the opening of Tasha Depp's show at the Agroforestry Resource Center.

Artist Statement

The ubiquitous remnants of consumption— scraps of plastic, crumpled bags, pieces of molded plastic— are the subject of my work and also the ground on which I paint. These objects are the detritus of our daily lives, scattered around us as silent witnesses to the passage of time. Along roadsides and streambeds, I pick up scraps and shards, saving them sometimes for years, until I recognize their potential to relate to an existing painted surface, or to suggest their own iteration as subject and/or object on which to paint.

The imperfections of these objects—colors, textures, and worn surfaces—are the starting points for my work. I engage with them to explore the fleeting nature of the present moment and the appearances we often overlook. At some point I realized that the revered permanence of oil painting is akin to the non-biodegradable aspect of refuse. Each mark I make is an attempt to understand how these obstinate objects, in their brokenness and wear, reflect the instability and ephemerality of our own experience in the world.

My project is less about representation and more about the act of presence itself. It is about acknowledging that the most mundane objects, when observed closely, can disrupt our perception and invite us to question the assumptions we make about what is worthy of attention. Through this process, I engage with the present moment as it is—fragmented, elusive, and full of complexity— with no singular narrative or meaning. My work is less about what is being depicted and more about how these surfaces and objects act as mirrors for the instability of time and perception. Mine is an ongoing exploration of how we experience the world through its discarded remnants—imperfect, incomplete, and constantly shifting

About the Artist

Depp escaped from high school in Virginia to Cooper Union School of Art in NYC where she found her people and earned her BFA in painting and then a little later an MFA from Rutgers University. Depp traveled to India in 1991 where she did a 2 month residency at the Kanoria Center in Ahmedabad. The time in India clarified Depp’s commitment to “not knowing,” and moral uncertainty (long before the cultivation of fake news). A Cape Cod dune shack residency was pivotal in her decision to leave NYC for the Catskill area where she embarked on adventures in parenting, bee-keeping, and running a car on vegetable oil for over 200,000 miles. Currently, Depp lives in Kiskatom where she has a large vegetable garden, an incredible view of the Catskills running along her back yard, and a studio in a barn. She is a teaching artist at Fishkill Correctional Faciltiy for Rehailitation Through the Arts in addition to teaching in the College Program at Greene Corrections and Brookwood Juvenile Faciltiy through Columbia Greene Community College where she also teaches Computer Graphics on campus.