Meet Erica Tamburo

We were lucky to catch up with Erica Tamburo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Erica, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

It’s so difficult to know where to start this story. Do I start with the little farm girl, her nose in a book and the rest of her dirty with sweat and the days work? Maybe I start with the engineering graduate student, with two Masters Degrees, yet exiting a PhD program early with absolutely no clue what to do with herself. I was always just trying to do what I was supposed to do, which my family said was to get a PhD. That was the first time I didn’t succeed and the first time that I realized that I didn’t know what I was passionate about. A few years later, at a work holiday party, my boss’s wife asked what I was up to and her description of me made me feel so seen. “Always in service to others.” It’s true, I’m that person. Need help moving? No problem. No place to live? Maybe we can convert the basement. The number of times I’ve thought about helping someone out by moving them in would terrify my husband. It’s always been my instinct. I think it’s just part of who I am but I know it was reinforced by my family and the farm. I find it so rewarding living in service and that lives at the core of my purpose in the world.

I’ve always been drawn to photography and glass, but math and science was what my family valued. So I studied Bioengineering, thanks to my mother, a CT tech. Rehabilitation Science and Technology thanks to my desire to work with others to find custom solutions. Then took an unexpected turn into Psychiatry and medical imaging research. I love learning and a good challenge, but these things never seemed to quite fill me. Photography however, was there to play an unexpected role.

In parallel to my medical imaging career, I picked up a camera again. I have my husband and puppy to thank for that and the Special Olympics PA. For a number of years we tried to keep afloat a portrait and even photography side business. It was incredibly difficult to do that as busy engineers. But what I found in photography was what I was looking for, confidence. It helped me grow in ways I just wasn’t as an engineer. It gave me that creative outlet that I desperately needed. When I really started to embrace my creativity, and moved firmly into fine art photography it was like a switch in my heart was flipped. I finally felt like me, felt really seen by the world.

My fine art was a little driven by anger. “Photography isn’t art,” someone I knew said to me. It fired me up and I made it my mission to create something new. My experience with medical imaging helped me do just that. Working with software applications, writing code, and learning techniques from brilliant radiologists gave me the opportunity to look at things but see them differently. It’s that way of seeing that makes my art so unique.

I have since left research and am working to integrate my technical interests, my service interests, and my art into a career path. If I had to simplify what my purpose is I’d say it was to make the world a better place, but my purpose is more nuanced than that and still unfolding in front of me, my heart leading the way.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am currently focusing on showing up in the world as all of me and that includes sharing my art with the world. For me it is so much easier talking about technology and the benefits of technology, but sharing art and talk about why someone should want to invest in my art is so challenging. But my art represents a few things that I think are exciting. First, my art is an example of how technology can influence creativity and help enable the creation of something new. Second, my pieces are often made following introspective work. My multiple exposure photographs start with a painting and a flower, the paintings often representing a challenge. The final image representing the answer to that challenge. For example the “Start Where You Are” series is the answer to the feelings of guilt we get when we think we “should be” something or somewhere other than where we are. This series helped me through cancer and a career change and was a part of the Pittsburgh Paints/Greater Pittsburgh Arts Project’s Breast Cancer Awareness Exhibit in Mayor Gainey’s office. I am also really excited about offering wearable art. Wearables transform the art into a token that individuals can take with them to remind them of the message that my art carries. I am also very excited about getting more involved in STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art and Math) education in Pittsburgh. I’ve been really excited to have been invited by both the Carnegie Science Center and Assemble to be a guest expert and to introduce kids to photography. I look forward to doing more of this work in the future and to supporting these efforts.

I have an upcoming open studio showing October 30th and November 3rd if anyone is interested in getting a behind the scenes look!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I would say that the three things that helped me find my purpose were
1. Being comfortable being a beginner – you have to make peace with trying new things and failing, and trying again and again until you learn or create something you are proud of
2. Finding growth minded people to surround yourself with – they will see the good in you before you do, and help you achieve things you couldn’t dream of for yourself
3. Listen to your heart – people could see me light up way before I could because I was listening to my head more than my heart, now that I’ve learned to listen it rarely steers me wrong

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

Oh gosh, there’s not just one person. When I was young I would have to say that my 4H advisor, Cindy Stingle, was the first person who I felt saw and liked me for being me. She introduced me to leadership and encouraged my thirst for learning and trying new things. Then there is David Cooper, an important teacher and friend who liked my work even before I liked my work. From him I learned that there’s no bad photograph when you are learning and to accept the title of photographer when many outside voices were saying that I wasn’t one. More recently, Beth Caldwell of Pittsburgh Professional Women, continually inspires me and represents the type of person I strive to be, kind, caring, compassionate but with healthy boundaries. She’s an important mentor for me both personally and as an entrepreneur.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Anita Buzzy Prentiss
Dave Hochendoner

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