It surprises many to learn that Tilson is a self-taught artist, given the breathtaking detail in her work. Hailing from a family of artists and musicians, Tilson's entire life has been steeped in creativity and she has been drawing and illustrating since she developed the fine motor skills to hold the tools. Her family jokes that she was born with a crayon is each fist. She states, “I draw because I have to. Art is a compulsion, a drive that I cannot shake. It has been this way since as far back as I can remember”.
Initially inspired by a comic book collection gifted to her as a child, she began illustrating in earnest during the teen years. After a lifetime of honing her craft, Tilson now creates highly detailed watercolor illustrations inspired by botany and biology. Her current body of work, “Flesh and Flowers”, focuses on animals that have gone extinct in the last 100 years. Tilson's work seamlessly fuses the beautiful and the grotesque, catching many people off guard, and she says, “My latest inspiration for my works is the stark balancing act that is life and nature. Nature and the human condition is at once beautiful and horrifying. I'd like people to realize that, to be beautiful, art doesn't need to be pretty”.
In 2017, New Hampshire Magazine featured Tilson as one of the state's “Remarkable Women Artists to Watch”. Recently, her work has been featured at Kelly Stelling Contemporary in Manchester, NH, Always April Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland, and the well loved annual “Damned Show” in Detroit, Michigan.
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