I was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1946, which is my mother’s home town. In 1955 we moved to my father’s home town of Kodiak, Alaska and from there to Washington State in 1963. I Graduated from the University of Washington in 1968, married in 1970, and have two children, Ian Gill and Tatiana Gill, both of Seattle, Washington. Divorced 1978. Moved to Yelm, Washington, in 1994. I ultimately moved to the High Desert of Southern California in 1996. Appeared in many venues and shows through the years.


Since 1996 I’ve been making and selling my artwork in Yucca Valley, California

I am AKA Tanya Kraft, Karen Tanya Kraft, Tanya Gill and Diana Babbitt

I have a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington in Seattle. But an hour after being admitted to the graduate program in English, there, I realized I would prefer to be a visual artist. I had no idea how to do this.

I had to figure out what was important to do, artistically. Well, you make things that you feel like making or want to make or are interesting to you. You look for the visual qualities. But what lies under them? The best thing I have heard is the Face of God idea. I heard that the ancient Egyptians had an artistic philosophy about making things that looked like God. Obviously this throws the whole thing wide open. The second thing was an offshoot of the Face of God idea, and that was my own invention. I wanted to make the things that I wanted to see. If I could afford to do so, I would coat all my walls and all my property with these things.

This is a favorite poem of mine, by Gerard Manley Hopkins*: