“I have always been an artistic person, but it was more of a hobby and general means of expression growing up,” says the artist of her early years creating. Ever since she had a life-changing encounter with the colorful pigment of a red amaryllis that she nurtured on a small home altar, Tyvette’s been experimenting with color and texture. “Every day I would take note of the plant’s changes and appearance as a part of my meditation. One day I noticed the petals on one side of the flower wilting and turning dark. I realized that the sage I was burning underneath was heating up the flower and causing it to wither and bleed. I touched the petal and this amazing bright pigment covered my fingers. I wiped it on a piece of paper and I was completely fascinated by the color and the texture of it.” As an artist, she likes to work with materials that you would find in nature. Crystals, flowers, moss, dirt and feathers are all in Symone’s repertoire, usually set on canvas or in glass. “My art’s intention is to evoke the subconscious feelings that go beyond one’s mental perception about the meaning of a piece of art. Each creation represents a different aspect of an emotion or principle based on what they are made of. The evolution of the pieces’ design is paramount to my overall expression,” explains Tyvette. Speaking to and within a society that has become very alienated from the natural world, “I like taking what nature has given us and transforming it in a way that we can appreciate and incorporate it in our daily lives…My art is designed to bring that element back into our living space and our hearts.” Whether drying each individual flower petal or carefully selecting and crushing each crystal by hand, it’s a process Tyvette commits to with the patience needed to create sacred objects. On her off days, she’s also the Office Manager at a large tech company in Manhattan. In terms of creative challenges, it takes a month to properly prepare flowers for her pieces , and the results are often unpredictable. “I also think that it makes my creativity amplify because I have to figure out how to work with what I have—which is what nature needs us to do anyway , to work with what is.” Currently, she’s working on a few custom canvas and glass pieces for collectors. She’s also prepping a set of duck wings for the Fall collection, watching carefully how the changing of the seasons affects her material, and exploring some larger-scale pieces.
Follow the artist on IG @tyvettesymone