Hello!

I’m Tessa, an artist and storyteller. Using watercolor, ink, chalk, and pencil, I love to explore how place, memory, and myth shape who we are. And if there are rascally animals and some silliness along the way, so much the better.

I grew up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, feasting, fighting, and making stories with my four siblings. I am endlessly inspired by old growth rainforests, the lives of New York rats, family recipes, and whales. Even in my funniest or smallest stories, there are always themes of tenderness, community, and resistance.

Growing up I wanted to be a ballet-dancing-Indiana Jones. Now, I still dance and when I am not writing and drawing, I work at a history museum so I think my nine-year-old self would be pretty pleased. I live and grow in Brooklyn with my husband and our dog Dot.