Artwork
Images
#gems
#gold
#portraits
#watercolor
November 4, 2021
Grace Ebert
In If I’m No Longer Right here, I Needed You to Know, photographic artist Tawny Chatmon overlays portraits of younger kids and households with dabs of pure gold leaf, valuable stones, and watercolor particulars. The closely adorned photos are the newest in Chatmon’s superimposed works, which veered from digital collages to the hand-gilded items evocative of Gustav Klimt’s Golden Section which are just like these proven right here, and reply to themes of unity and togetherness born out of the continued pandemic.
Whereas a lot of Chatmon’s works beforehand centered on a single topic, she’s transitioned to additionally photographing two kids at play or whole households, together with fathers the place she in any other case had not. She explains:
My father performed such a paramount function in my, my sisters’, and my mom’s lives. It didn’t sit nicely with me that I wasn’t celebrating that in my work, too. It has been 10 years since we misplaced our father to prostate most cancers, but nonetheless, his classes and love carry us by way of our days. I considered my husband too, my brother-in-law, my good friend’s fathers and husbands, and the entire world’s compassionate fathers and the way essential they’re, and I particularly needed to rejoice Black fathers who are sometimes depicted as something apart from what they really are… phenomenal.
By means of gilt gildings, Chatmon emphasizes the sweetness and worth inherent in her topics, whose joyful, tender expressions and gestures exude heat and affection. “The previous yr’s pandemic revealed to me as soon as extra that point with our family members is just not infinite… Whereas the revelations of injustice resulting in civil unrest jogged my memory of the urgency to proceed to work in the direction of a greater future for our youngsters,” she says. “I don’t want to watch for the proper time, the proper place, or the proper day to specific my love for household and associates.”
At present based mostly in Maryland, Chatmon will present a few of her portraits with Galerie Myrtis on the 2022 Venice Biennial. She’s engaged on a brand new collection titled Remnants, which explores themes of futurity and concord by way of mosaic-style items comprised of snippets of the artist’s earlier work. You’ll be able to observe her progress on Instagram.
#gems
#gold
#portraits
#watercolor
Do tales and artists like this matter to you? Grow to be a Colossal Member and help unbiased arts publishing. Be part of a neighborhood of like-minded readers who’re obsessed with modern artwork, assist help our interview collection, acquire entry to companion reductions, and way more. Be part of now!