LONG BEACH, Wash. — Wearing giant glasses and graduating as valedictorian, it was inevitable that Taryn Wise would be teased about being like an owl.
“People made fun of me. But my family liked owls,” she said, recalling her childhood years in Peoria, Illinois. Gifts inevitably had owl themes. “We always had collections of owls, whether we wanted them or not!”
Taryn Wise is pictured in her studio in Long Beach, Washington. A Northwest resident since 2014, she creates art featuring birds against abstract backgrounds, wooden jigsaw puzzles and has three sets of tarot cards with individual designs.