Tasha spent her growing years surrounded by a farm of poultry. As a child, she ran through the land in search of eggs, her only chore. Older, she was responsible for the care of the chickens, ducks, muscovies, guineas, and peacocks. Every day, she would pick and weigh eggs, water and feed the birds, and lock them away at night. At one point, she learned to incubate and candle eggs. Every so often in the incubation period, the eggs are candled. In particular, candling allows the removal of rotten and unfertilized eggs from the incubator. The candler is a flashlight of sorts that is held to the eggs to see inside with a bright light. Depending on when the eggs are candled, they appear differently. A general rule of thumb of a healthy egg is if the inside of the egg has veins and a dark splotch. If the egg is very dark or black inside and odd-looking, then the egg is likely rotten. If the egg is clear or normal-looking, then the egg is unfertilized. 

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This series of work is a representation of “living” art within the subject matter of incubating eggs and was created as an assignment in the Drawing IV class at the University of South Dakota. Tasha used real eggshells with this series and presented them on a light table. She created five, harmonious color combinations paired with nest materials. The additive process onto the eggshells involved layering and sealing the surface. With the drawing, she utilized certain motifs to signify healthy, rotten, or unfertilized eggs.  Watercolor paint, marker, and pen were used to decorate the surface of the shell. Nest Eggs was created to express the beauty and intimateness of a variety of nests and the candling of eggs.