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Never Your Burden to Carry by Tawny Chatmon

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But She Already Knew They Were More Precious Than all the Jewels and Gold in the World" - T. Chatmon

Tawny Chatmon Inheritance

One to Watch: Tawny Chatmon

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Tawny Chatmon

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″

Tawny Chatmon Artwork

Tawny Chatmon

artwork | statement | bio | resume | video

Deeply Embedded / Ancestral - Limited Edition of 25
Photography, Photo-Manipulation, Montage, Superimposition
Size: 16 H x 20 W x 0.1 in

The World is Imperfect, But You… The Awakening Series
12k white gold leaf on archival pigment print
54” x 30" (unframed), 72” x 49.5" (framed)
2018-2019

Sisterhood: Byzantine Contempo Series
24k gold leaf on archival pigment print
45” x 33 " (unframed), 60"x 47" (framed)
2016

Deeply Embedded / Little One - Limited Edition of 25
Photography, Photo-Manipulation, Montage, Superimposition
Size: 16 H x 20 W x 0.1 in

Deeply Embedded / God - Limited Edition of 25
Photography, Photo-Manipulation, Montage, Superimposition
Size: 16 H x 20 W x 0.1 in

Fundamental: 3, 2016
Photography, Montage
20h x 30w in

Fundamental: 4, 2016
Photography, Montage
20h x 30w in

Fundamental / Eye, 2016
Photography, Montage
20h x 30w in

Hayden: Byzantine Contempo Series
24k gold leaf on archival pigment print
44” x 30" (unframed), 58"x 43.5" (framed)
2016

Peace Within: The Awakening Series
24k gold leaf and archival pigment print
36" x 28" (unframed), 43.5"x 33.5" (framed)
2018-2019

The Redemption: The Boy That Changed My Life Honored
24k gold leaf and acrylic paint on archival pigment print
51” x 41” x 4” on Hahnemühle Paper w/ additional 5cm border
2018-2019

Mya: Deeply Embedded
Limited Edition of 25
Photography, Photo-Manipulation, Montage, Superimposition
20"H x 16"W
2016

Tawny Chatmon Biography

Biography

Tawny Chatmon (b. 1979, Tokyo, Japan) is a photography-based artist residing in Maryland. In 2010, the then commercial photographer’s outlook and relationship with her camera shifted when she began photographing her father’s battle with cancer, consequently documenting the disease unexpectedly taking his life. With her father’s passing, she gradually began to look to her camera less as a device for monetary gain and more as a way for her work to serve a higher vocation.

While the camera remains her primary tool of communication, the self-taught artist takes a multi-layered approach in her process. She does not restrict herself to following any set of rules and does not subscribe exclusively to traditional photography practices. Her photographs are often digitally intensified by exaggerating the hairstyles of her subjects (who are often her children and other family members), lending them the eyes of someone older and wiser, and elongating their form, drawing inspiration from the Byzantine period to signify importance. Thereafter, she typically combines overlappings of digital collage and illustration. After refining and printing, she frequently experiments with various art practices by hand-embellishing with acrylic paint, 24-karat gold leaf, and materials such as paper, semi-precious stones, glass, and other mixed media. In choosing to frame the achieved iconography in golden antique, repurposed, and contemporary baroque frames, the artist composes a touching counter-narrative that is more than just a photograph but a new, meaningful compositional expression.

Chatmon suggests that our life experiences and memories are largely responsible for who one ultimately becomes and that “what we are exposed to, what we are taught, and even the toys we play with as children” contributes immensely to shaping us into adulthood. A Black woman and mother of three Black children, she is motivated by “leaving something important behind” to the world her children will grow up in while creating imagery that celebrates and honors the beauty of Black childhood and familial bonds while at times addressing the absence and exclusion of the Black body in Western art.

Chatmon is among the eight African American artists featured in the 2022 Venice Biennale exhibition The Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined, curated by Myrtis Bedolla of Galerie Myrtis. The exhibit explores the theme of Black life on the continuum of its imagined future presented in the Personal Structures art fair.

Photographer: Melody F. Dixon

Tawny Chatmon Statement

Statement

It is my belief that our memories and experiences are directly responsible for who we become. What we are exposed to, what we read, the toys we play with as children, what we view… I attribute this thought to my desire to make sure I’m sending a clear message (with my work) and that the message I am sending is “saying something” important; because if I believe we are shaped by our memories, as an artist, I must also believe that I too play a small part in shaping and shifting the views of anyone who comes in contact with my work. I did not always think this way but once realized, the thought never left me.
​
The primary theme that drives my art practice today is celebrating the beauty of black childhood. I am currently devoted to creating portraits that are inspired by artworks spanning various periods in Western Art with the intent of bringing to the forefront faces that were often under-celebrated in this style of work.
​
My camera remains my primary tool of communication, while my constant exploration of diverse ways of expression moves me to add several different layers using a variety of mediums. After a portrait session is complete, I typically digitally manipulate my subjects and unite them with other components to achieve a work that is a new expression. Often lending to them the eyes of someone their elder and more wise and almost always exaggerating and/or emphasizing their hair and features in a celebratory way. Thereafter, I may superimpose antique patterns and textures, collage vintage botanical and wildlife illustrations, or add hand-drawn digital illustration. If I feel I am not yet complete, after each portrait is refined and printed, I may combine paint and gold leaf adding ornamental elements.. By experimenting with various art practices, I allow myself to follow no set of rules while creating instinctually and fluidly. Each layer serves it’s very own meaningful purpose.
​
It is my hope that with each theme I explore and with each portrait I create, something vital is etched into the memory of the viewer.
​
-Tawny Chatmon

The Redemption: Castles
Photography, Photo- Manipulation, 24k gold leaf, Acrylic paint
34.5″ x 42″ Framed
2018/2019