For those who encounter my work, I want them to stop, I want them to pay attention, I want them to not be able to look away
-Tawny Chatmon

Through the lens of photography and the layering of mixed media materials, artist Tawny Chatmon has captured the regality of Black youth. Inspired by the aesthetics of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt’s Golden Phase, Chatmon’s subjects are often depicted in period dresses and then layered with a mixed media of gold leaf, acrylic paint, and detailed with precious and semi-precious jewels. To add a spiritual presence to her subjects, Chatmon employs the Byzantine art aesthetic of elongating their bodies and dress. Consequently, these figures overwhelm the space. Adding emphasis are the grandeur and versatile styles and textures of natural black hair that serve as a celebration of Black beauty. Yet, there is also a stillness of these figures that echoes what Kevin Quashie (2012) describes as “the sovereignty of quiet” in which quiet “is a metaphor for the full range of one’s inner life—one’s desires, ambitions, hunger, vulnerabilities [and] fears.” … Chatmon’s work primarily focuses on creating a safe and healing space for Black childhood in western society, which is feared and often indistinguishable from Black adulthood.

Excerpt from the essay “What I Want You to Know: Chatmon’s Visual Love Letter to Black Children” By Tanisha M. Jackson, Ph.D.

It Was Never Your Burden To…, 2020
24k gold leaf, acrylic, watercolor on archival pigment print
52 x 36″