Hi All,

As many of you know, I am a kidney transplant recipient, so I am very passionate about helping others who are dealing with kidney failure. This month is Kidney Awareness Month, and I am attempting to raise money to help people who are dealing with kidney failure and dialysis. I am doing an online raffle for one of my original paintings. There will also be a second and third place prize of art!

The piece below will be raffled off, and winners will be announced live at Avisca Fine Art Gallery on March 29, 2012 from 6-8pm. It you live out of the state or country, the announcement will be videotaped and placed on Youtube and Facebook, so please follow me on Facebook.

Honeysuckle 20x16 Mixed media on canvas (framed) ©2012

The requirements are that you donate a minimum of $5. The more times you donate, the more chances you have to win. That's pretty simple, right? The donation button is below, just click it and enter the amount that you wish to donate.

Remember, your chance to win increases by the amount of times that you donate, and not the amount you donate.

On March 29, 2012 we will be handing out raffle tickets to all who enter. I'll be raffling off some small pieces, so be sure to come through and support a great cause. We will also be accepting donations that evening.

If you are the winner and you live out of the United States, you'll have to pay for shipping. Shipping costs will be taken care of if you live in the United States.

If you have questions, please do not contact the gallery. Email info@tamaranataliemadden.com. For Atlanta residents, the address to the gallery is below!
DONATE BELOW!


Avisca Fine Art Gallery
507 Roswell Street NE 
Marietta, GA 30060
770.977.2732

Hi All,

Because of popular demand, I have created a new giclee series of four entitled, Birds of Paradise.

The first painting in the series is called Birds of a Feather. You can purchase it on canvas or on watercolor paper. Both prices are listed below.

More details are below:

Birds of a Feather / Limited Edition Giclee / Edition of 25 / Signed and numbered


27x18 on canvas (hand embellished) $600


or


27x18 inches printed on HaHneMuHle Watercolor Paper– 100% cotton rag fiber papers. $300


If you wish to purchase, you can purchase directly from this blog, or you can contact the artist directly @ info@tamaranataliemadden.com for purchasing details.

Thank you!

Birds of a Feather Giclee

on canvas $600.00 USD watercolor paper $300.00 USD

It's the end of 2011, and I had so many plans this year. Some, I was able to accomplish, others, well... I have to say that I've learned a lot, about my own strength and persistence. My passion for creating is even more intensified, and I can greet struggle and disappointments with confidence--knowing that good things will come from all of it!

I have shows already lining up for the New Year, and I've had some very successful shows this year, including my solo at Avisca! I am so honoured that I was able to show my work there. I've come leaps and bounds from where I was, creatively,  7 years ago.

I have NEW inspired art coming for 2012! I'm so excited to create. I have another solo show coming in the spring, and I'll divulge all details later. In the meantime, I wanted to share with you some of my collage series. These are very small collages, that I thoroughly enjoy creating. I've been creating them on and off for years, but decided to play with them in a different way.

I'll be posting the rest on my website soon...in the meantime, enjoy!

Please follow me on Facebook! 

Have a Splendid New Year!

image above: Blossom©2011/2012

<-- Parasol©2011/2012

Commentary on my new series BLACKFACE.


For years we've seen negative imagery of people painting themselves in horrific blackface, to mimic and mock the beauty of black skin. It's still going on to this day, and can be seen in ads around the world as some new fashion trend. It's an insulting trend. There are so many amazingly gorgeous black beauties that could be used in these ads instead.

Additionally, there is an epidemic in Jamaica, all across the Caribbean, in Africa, and India with skin bleaching. It's become an horrific trend to see people bleaching their gorgeous dark skin to become a shade that is lighter, all while poisoning themselves and risking cancer.

This new series celebrates the real black faces, of women, men and children. I wanted to focus on our lovely features: full noses and voluptuous lips. It's a celebration of black, and although black comes in many shades, I chose to use the medium of charcoal to create these pieces. I wanted to express this sense of 'blackness' in a more monochromatic manner.

More to come soon!

Enjoy!

Original press release can be found here: http://africanamericanartgallery.aviscafineart.com/

Full Circle: Solo Exhibition by Tamara Natalie Madden at Avisca Fine Art Gallery Press Release Jamaican-Born Atlanta Artist defies the odds to Celebrate 10 years of Art-Making Tamara Natalie Madden: Full Circle October 7-28, 2011 Opening Reception: Friday October 7, 6pm-9pm Avisca Fine Art Gallery, 507 Roswell Street, Marietta, GA 30060 Marietta, GA (September 26, 2011) – Tamara Natalie Madden has a lot to celebrate.  A solo exhibition to mark her ten years of art-making opens at Marietta, GA Avisca Fine Art Gallery. That is a remarkable achievement in itself, but more remarkable is her story of tragedy, triumph and an amazing twist of fate that got her to this milestone in her life. In 1997, at 22 years of age, Madden was diagnosed with a rare and incurable genetic kidney disease called IGA Nephropathy. Over the next few years she would watch her body deteriorate while she tried to maintain balance and sanity in the face of a brutal dialysis regimen and with all the toxins that were collecting in her body. At age 13, Madden had moved to the U.S. from her native Jamaica where her childhood was humble but filled with memorable childhood experiences, the love and guidance of family and teachers, and dreams of becoming an artist. Over the next few years she created art sporadically but after her diagnosis, in what may be a silver lining, she turned most of her time, attention and passion to art-making as therapy. In 2000, Madden took a trip to Jamaica to reunite with family and with hopes of finding a half-brother that she had never met. She had no idea that the trip would save her life. On learning of her condition, her brother offered to give her one of his kidneys. The amazing offer was consummated in 2001 with Madden undergoing a successful kidney transplant. That year she participated in her first art exhibition, making good on the determination that she had made long ago to become a professional fine artist. Her art and her career have both grown meteorically since that first exhibition. Today her work can be found in collections such as Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and Alverno College in Wisconsin.  She has exhibited in a number of group and solo exhibitions in the United States and Canada. She was a recipient of an individual grant from the Puffin Foundation for her project, “Never Forgotten”, which focused on combating poverty worldwide; and her work has been featured in publications including the New York Times, the Jamaican Gleaner and Upscale magazine. Tamara Madden’s work reveals a fascination with people, usually ordinary, everyday people who, in her portrayal, appear as royalty, nobility, or somehow above the fray of quotidian life, even as they engage in activities that root them in their environment. Perhaps it was the life-saving act of charity and the love and nurturing of family and friends that have shaped her world view in which people are inherently good, divine, ethereal and noble. At the same time, her work also often voices larger social concerns and she is not afraid to use her subjects to turn a spotlight on issues such as poverty, class, status and racism. Her solo exhibition, “Full Circle” is Madden’s loving paean to the people, places and experiences that have informed and inspired her over ten years of art-making. The exhibition opens with a reception on Friday, October 7, 6-9 PM and runs through October 28. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. Exhibition Dates: October 7-28, 2011 Opening Reception: Friday, October 7, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm (Free and open to the public) Venue: Avisca Fine Art Gallery, 507 Roswell Street, Marietta, GA 30060. Gallery Hours: Thursday – Saturday 12 pm – 6 pm, and by Appointment ############# Self portrait of the artist Tamara Natalie Madden (L) from her first passport photograph as a U.S.- bound pre-teen and the artist today (R)