About Tara Ariel Goreau

You have to run at the wall a few times before you can break through.
community art city market.jpg
Mural painted with youth at community center Swaziland

Mural painted with youth at community center Swaziland

TARA ARIEL GOREAU is a large-scale artist whose vivid murals have inspired and reflected communities locally and abroad. Growing up in rural parts of New England, Tara learned to paint and draw from a young age, and completed one of her first murals at a local pool for her senior project at St. Johnsbury Academy in 2006. She then went on to study Ecology and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia for two years, where she started an impromptu Parking Garage Beautification Task Force with a group of students in her free time. Unfortunately, unable to obtain permission for the team's efforts to beautify the walls with uplifting imagery done in oil pastel, the artworks were considered vandalism by campus security and painted over. 

However, this did not deter Tara from pursuing art, but rather taught her to ask permission before painting walls, and during a voluntourist school-building trip to Swaziland in 2007 she created two large murals with local kids and volunteers at a community center.  Later, in 2008, on a year abroad in New Zealand to study Forestry at the University of Canterbury, Ariel took another step to embrace the artistic passions that she had been cultivating from a young age in the solitary hills of Vermont. She decided to pursue art academically after she realized that she could not bring herself to stop sketching her classmates and professors during excel class. She enrolled in the Design and Arts College of New Zealand in Christchurch in 2008, and painted extensively before returning to Vermont in 2009, going on to earn a BFA at Johnson State College with honors in 2011.

After graduating, Tara followed certain leads in the rural Vermont community with the help of Professor Ken Leslie of Hardwick, and began to paint murals by offering to paint walls in exchange for just the charge of materials. During this time she supported herself by working a series of part time jobs, including cooking and landscaping. As her work became more visible in the farming community, Tara was able to quit her day job and focus on art in 2012. Over the years she has been grateful to get mural painting jobs, including at Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Pete’s Greens, The Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, and the entryways to City Market in 2013 and 2018. She focuses her attention on the landscape as well as societal trends and concerns to create large scale pieces that she considers funny, poignant, and interesting. Her studio is located in Burlington VT, and she feels lucky to be part of such a supportive creative community. 

storm drain mural in New North End 2016

storm drain mural in New North End 2016