About

My Journey to art & wellness

I grew up drawing. My sister wrote stories and I animated those stories. My dream was to be an artist. I began designing and sewing clothes in high school. I attended Indiana University of PA for Fashion Merchandising and Business Administration. The demand of school and work overtook my life. My classes were focused on the business side of fashion and I lost interest. I eventually gave up my creative pursuits in trying to survive paycheck to paycheck.

After a bad back injury working as a raft guide in my mid-twenties, I had to find a way to heal. I started practicing yoga, and eventually completed a Yoga Teacher Training. It didn’t pay well, but I was on a much needed new journey. I started to teach in the Ohiopyle, PA area and loved connecting with and helping my students. This is why I believed I could work in healthcare. After all, I couldn’t live broke in the hills forever. It was time for another new journey.

I had to find a stable career. Living with little in my bank account caught up to me. After my back injury, I found it hard to make ends meet, and I needed health insurance. I went back to school to work in healthcare after enduring the Great Recession of 2007 – 2009. School was demanding and the Respiratory Therapy market was flooded. Jobs were not as plentiful as advertised, and I worked tirelessly to earn full time employment at Ruby Memorial Hospital, WV. Luck was on my side, too – an RT retired and left one open position in a department of over 100 RTs. I got hired.

Mother Nature is my first love. I am an avid hiker, biker, and boater. I found outdoor adventures as a stress reliever in my teens. When I hurt my back, my entire life changed. At first, for many years, I pushed through the pain. But that didn’t work, it only made it worse. I spent countless days, weeks, months, and years debilitated. I didn’t have another way to let go, to feel free. I needed outdoor adventures – I needed to push myself physically. I didn’t know how to cope. Working as a Respiratory Therapist was demanding, and it wasn’t helping me heal. I struggled in my career and personal life. I became depressed.

I found myself drowning in a career too demanding for my circumstances. I had the means to take care of myself, but the twelve hour shifts back to back, and the stress of hospital work tore me down. After several medical leaves, the COVID-19 pandemic, and too many hostile work environments, I needed an out. I couldn’t find stress relief in pushing myself physically anymore.

I started to write about my experience with a debilitating injury and the COVID-19 horrors. I started to draw and take ceramics classes. Eventually, I enrolled in the Web & Graphic Design program in Garrett College, MD. I added a painting class to my schedule just to see if I’d like it. A creative outlet was my ticket to freedom. Not only did I find relief in painting, I found something I could build for myself.

That’s where Tara Morris Art & Wellness was born – sheer desperation to live a better life. I have never made a better decision for myself. It wasn’t easy. It was necessary.