Biography

Tanja Bolenz was born in Germany in 1962 and emigrated to Vancouver BC, in 1980. After one year at Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, she returned to Germany and trained as a hand bookbinder with Siegfried Büge. In 1985, back in Vancouver, she opened her own bindery and worked in fine binding and restoration, as well as teaching bookbinding until 1994, when she went to Great Britain.

Calligraphy had been one of her primary interests since the mid-1980s; therefore, in order to study calligraphy in more depth, in 1994 Tanja enrolled at Roehampton Institute in London. There, the curriculum included an intense study of Western scripts, as well as gilding, miniature painting, and painted and experimental lettering. She graduated with a BA in Calligraphy (First Class Hons.) in 1997.

While at Roehampton, she became interested in lettercarving in stone and, after leaving college, was fortunate to be able to work and study with letter-designer Tom Perkins in Cambridgeshire for 17 months. Since lettercutting in stone is a very two-dimensional application, Tanja felt that she needed to understand the three-dimensional qualities of stone in greater depth.

In 1999, she therefore enrolled at Weymouth College, Dorset, for a two-year course in Applied Architectural Stone Work. At college, she produced varied pieces of masonry and architectural carving and lettering, both for school projects and commercial purposes. In 2001, she graduated with a Higher National Diploma. To further develop her skills, Tanja worked for Alec Peever in Oxfordshire for six months; following that, she began working freelance.

In 2003, she decided to return to Canada, where she will continue working in lettering in stone and on paper, as well as producing sculptural pieces and teaching calligraphy and bookbinding.