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This site’s glorious purpose

To share my latest visual arts projects, tips, tricks and tutorials to help you find your creative voice.

Here at Tenuki HQ, you’ll find:

• Wordless Wednesday, weekly single image posts from my all-time favorite images
• Twice a month, I post in-depth view into my creative process
• Pages for all my Projects
• Links to my shops, publications and exhibitions
• Coming in 2023 freebies and exclusive subscriber content

Artist Bio

My life has been a journey through two worlds.

My father was of German-Scottish descent and spent his early years in the military; later in life, he became an artist. My mother was Cherokee, Sauk Suiatte and enrolled Yakama; she a banker and a Native crafter.

I received my first 35 mm SLR camera in 1982. After high school, I took a course in Office Skills in order to find work outside of fast foods. Since 1983, I’ve held many office professional roles in several industries and am currently an Executive Assistant at a global tech company.

I earned a Bachelor of Arts in theater, focused on design with a minor in Art History. When not working, I’ve explored many visual arts over the years:

• beadwork
• paper craft
• art journals
• mixed media art
• fiber arts
• photography

The name Tenukihandcrafts was coined by my husband when I opened her Etsy shop in the mid-90s. Tenuki is a term from the game of go which means to take the initiative and play somewhere else. Tenukihandcrafts is my non-work play time.

I currently use a Canon Rebel T1i and favor Lensbaby Velvet 56 and Composer Pro II with Soft Focus 50 and Sweet 50 optics.

Largely a self-taught photographer (and not very technical), my style took off when I found Sebastian Michaels Photoshop courses on My Photo Artistic Life.

My work features dolls and nature, includes dense visual information in a dreamy style and typically includes a lone figure.