Tanya Besedina ( she/her )

I am a storyteller, and porcelain is my voice.

Each piece I create is entirely handmade, carrying fragments of my own life and the experiences of those I love: friends, family, ancestors, and the stories entrusted to me. When light passes through porcelain, it feels to me like memory becoming visible. The slowness of this process is part of the story itself; each gesture leaves a trace of care, each layer a quiet memory of touch.

Porcelain begins with minerals from the earth: kaolin, feldspar, and silica. Working with these materials connects me to generations of makers who shaped and fired them before me. My research into Parian sculpture of the nineteenth century has taken me to Winterthur, Bennington Museum, the Walters Art Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among other collections. I examine mould seams, joins, and evidence of firing, alongside archival records and archaeological fragments, to understand how earlier makers constructed their sculptures. These observations inform how I form, join, and fire porcelain in my own studio. I see my work as a dialogue with the past, reawakening forgotten material languages through contemporary hands.

I often incorporate found and vintage objects into my sculptures, fragments that once lived other lives. In giving them new form, I honor their memory and extend their lifespan, transforming what might be discarded into something luminous.

At the heart of my work is love: love as acceptance of oneself, as transformation, as the force that unites. I believe that when we truly embrace ourselves, we create peace within and with one another. The energy we waste on conflict could instead nourish what is fragile and essential: children who grow with awareness, the earth that sustains us, the art that connects us, and the beauty we all share. Unity is the remembrance that we were never truly separate. It is the quiet return to wholeness within ourselves, with each other, and with something greater than us.

Motherhood is the ground of my practice. My daughter was born blind. Through her, I have learned to perceive life beyond sight: to listen more deeply, to feel more fully, and to recognize beauty in the invisible. I homeschool my children because life is fleeting, and I want to savor these years with them, to witness their growth, to learn alongside them, and to cherish the everyday magic of their becoming. They remind me daily that love is not abstract but embodied, transforming struggle into light.

My sculptures are meditations on transformation, love, loss, renewal, and our interdependence with history and nature. They are filled with ancestral echoes and carry within them the stories of both personal and collective memory. Through porcelain and through the traces of objects once held by other hands, I open portals inviting us to feel more, remember more, and honor what endures beyond the visible.

Tanya Besedina is a Canadian sculptor and researcher based in Toronto. Her sculptures and installations combine translucent porcelain, light, and found objects, drawing on experiences of motherhood, migration, and family stories. She researches Parian porcelain from the nineteenth century to understand how complex sculptures were moulded, assembled, and fired. Her research has taken her to Winterthur, Bennington Museum, the Walters Art Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among other collections. She examines mould divisions and joins, comparing complete objects with archaeological fragments and archival records. Besedina received Craft Ontario’s Helen Copeland Memorial Award in Ceramics in 2025. Her work has been presented at Cedar Ridge Gallery, The Artist Project, and the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery. Alongside her studio practice and research, she shares material knowledge through artist talks, writing, and tactile clay workshops for blind and low vision participants.