Welcome to
Dream Topography
Where aerial landscapes and microscopic worlds converge
About
Tara Gillespie (Baltimore County, MD) is a mixed media artist with a passion for contemporary art. In 2018 she started mixing her own acrylic paints and experimenting with resin, amongst other materials, and her practice has evolved since. Her studio is based in Timonium, MD, and she participates in the fine art festival circuit along the East coast.
Tara also reveals her techniques in-person offering fluid and epoxy resin art classes for adults and children. She also offers these classes as an instructor at Manor Mill in Monkton, Maryland. Upcoming shows and classes are announced on this website and on her instagram (@taragill_art) as they are confirmed.
Artist Statement
My work aims to connect our world with the spiritual. In my process I exploit the properties of paint and resin to create ethereal and nature-inspired works that mimic and transcend reality. I call my work “Dream Topography” because I feel my pieces evolve to resemble 3-dimensional maps where the viewer has an aerial view through layers of form in nature including atmosphere, landforms, minerals, water bodies, plant life, and cellular structures. What appears to one observer as a view of the universe may, to another, resemble the hidden worlds revealed beneath a microscope. By capturing both the cosmic and the cellular, my paintings remind us that the vast and the infinitesimally small can evoke the same sense of wonder, and that the same patterns and energy shape galaxies and cells alike. This suggests a deep interconnectedness between all scales of existence.
Description of Material and Technique
My work is created through mixed media processes using acrylic paint, mica powders, alcohol inks, pigments, epoxy resin, organic structural materials, such as balsa wood and rattan, and natural found objects. I work on custom-built wood panels building modular compositions, often constructing custom molds and surfaces that allow the material to flow and react organically. Many of the natural elements incorporated into the work including seashells, palm fronds, and pressed botanicals are personally foraged and collected creating a direct physical connection to the environments that inspire the work. Through repeated layering, sanding, and resin pours each surface develops depth, translucency, texture, and dimensionality. The work is process-driven and rooted in fluid movement, material interaction and shifting scales of perception, resulting in abstract “micro-worlds” that can be interpreted as aerial landscapes, geological formations, microscopic structures, or imagined environments.
Io Moon 🌙🪐 - 6x18”
Inspired by Jupiter’s moon Io and the strange beauty of worlds beyond our own.
Rather than creating a literal planetary landscape, I wanted this piece to feel like a fragment of an imagined world with cratered terrain suspended between translucent layers of atmosphere, mineral formations, and cellular forms.
Up close, the scale becomes uncertain. Are we looking down at the surface of a moon, through an atmosphere, or into something microscopic?
That space between the planetary and the cellular is where I keep getting lost. 🌀✨ Swipe to see my inspiration as this image of Io and the lavender color palette blew my mind.
#io #DreamTopography #OrbitAndOrigin #cosmicart #mixedmediaart
Worlds Within Worlds ✨
A new 18 × 24 mixed-media piece created for the upcoming Orbit & Origin exhibition @manormillgallery
This piece explores one of the ideas at the heart of my work. From the microscopic to the planetary, I’m fascinated by how often nature seems to speak the same visual language. The way patterns repeat across vastly different scales. A cellular structure viewed beneath a microscope can resemble an aerial landscape. Mineral formations can look like distant planets. Flowing water can echo atmospheric currents, and something only inches across can feel like an entire world.
Each tile in Worlds Within Worlds was created as its own micro-world layered with paint, texture, sculptural elements, pigments, inks, and resin, then brought together into a modular composition. Getting lost in each one is part of the design. 👁️🌀✨
#WorldsWithinWorlds #DreamTopography #OrbitAndOrigin #MixedMediaArt #cosmicart
Rainy weekend days in the studio are kinda my favorite. The businesses around me are closed and I feel such freedom when there’s no where to be. Here’s everything I worked on today in true mixed media fashion, as in I nearly got into everything 😂 . My “Orbit and Origins” mini collection is nearly finished. 🌌🪐
#artstudiolife #mixedmedia #fulltimeartist #rainyday #workinprogress
ORBIT & ORIGIN ✨
I’m so excited to be one of the artists featured in Manor Mill Gallery’s upcoming Orbit & Origin exhibition!
I’ve been creating a new mini collection of Dream Topography works specifically for this show, exploring one of the ideas at the heart of my practice - Interconnectedness - the way patterns repeat across radically different scales. Cellular structures begin to resemble planetary surfaces, fluid forms become atmospheres and nebulae, and geological textures can feel simultaneously microscopic and cosmic.
This collection has given me an opportunity to experiment even further with resin, sculptural texture, atmospheric effects, and mixed media, and I can’t wait to finally see all of these little worlds assembled together. 🌙✨
Orbit & Origin
Manor Mill Gallery
August 22 – October 4, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 22 | 4–7 PM
Closing Reception: Sunday, October 4 | 5–6 PM
I’d love to see you there. 🤍
#DreamTopography #OrbitAndOrigin #contemporaryart #mixedmediaart #cosmicart
Just a taste of my mini collection for the upcoming exhibit “Orbits and Origins” @manormillmonkton
I love how beautifully cellular and atmospheric these are. 🌌🪐🔬🧫These individual tiles are 6x6” and at least 2” thick and will be mounted together in sets to create a 6x6, 6x18, and 18x24” piece.
Worlds Within Worlds
##DreamTopography #OrbitAndOrigins #WorldsWithinWorlds #CosmicArt
Making really great progress on my mini collection that will be in an exhibit @manormillmonkton called “Orbit and Origins.”
Space isn’t empty. It’s made of rock, dust, minerals, chemistry, gravity, and time.
#galaxy #cellular #mixedmedia #microworld
I have an exhibit coming up called “Orbit and Origins” in August, so I’m on the moon today. These will be some of the specialty tiles used amongst the atmospheric tiles. It’s been a minute since I was focused on space, but it’s where I started so it feels like coming home. To be honest, it’s the perfect exhibit for my work as I am always aiming for that aerial perspective that captures both the universe and the cellular world.
#moon #mixedmedia #spaceart #moonsculpture
My Fluid Art class is this Sunday ✨ Come learn the chemistry and flow that defines fluid art, mix your own paints using my recipes, and create two different fluid art pieces using several different techniques.
Sunday, July 19th
4-6pm
Sign up at manor-mill.com/events
@manormillmonkton
