Tamara Natalie Madden

Tamara Natalie Madden was born in St. Andrew, Jamaica and raised in Manchester, Jamaica. It was during her childhood in Manchester that Madden was exposed to her first artistic influences. She continued to pursue art during her high school years, studying advanced literature, photography and creative writing. In 1992, when her art teacher passed from cancer, her sadness, along with teenage concerns, diverted her attention from art. Tamara created art sporadically for the next few years, with her passion eventually dissipating as life issues took precedence over her creativity.

In 1997, Tamara was diagnosed with a rare genetic kidney disease called IGA Nephropathy. Over the next few years she would watch her body deteriorate while she tried to maintain sanity amidst all of the toxins collecting in her body. In order to maintain some semblance of normalcy, she began to create again. In 2000, Tamara took a trip home to Jamaica in hopes of reuniting with family and finding a long lost brother. She had no idea that the trip would save her life. Her brother offered his kidney to her upon seeing the condition that she was in. This amazing offer was consummated in 2001 with Tamara undergoing a successful kidney transplant. That year she participated in her first art exhibition, making good on the promise that she had made to herself long ago to become a professional fine artist.

Tamara uses self-developed drawing and painting processes to create. She creates in remembrance of everyday survivors and her work is heavily influenced by her vivid memories of growing up in rural Jamaica. In addition, she has recently delved into abstraction and contemporary expressionism, welcoming the opportunity to indulge her love for color and texture.

Tamara has always felt a connection to ‘everyday folk’, the working class, the unseen and unheard, the true warriors of our time. She realized, however, that many people, who may have suffered through a similar struggle, did not want to revisit those struggles so she decided to turn her ideas inside out. Inspired, by the golden period of Gustav Klimt and images of royalty from Egypt and West Africa; she decided to turn regular folk into kings and queens. It seemed, in her view, to be the only way to allow them to be represented and appreciated for who they were intrinsically; kings, queens and warriors who never had a chance to shine, their ragged clothes and despondent appearance setting the tone for others to judge them. The birds in the pieces represent a sense of freedom. It was her way of injecting her personal experiences into each painting and remembering her escape from illness and dialysis.

Her work has been featured in the New York Times and many of her pieces are in the permanent collection of prestigious universities, including Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and Alverno College in Wisconsin. She’s exhibited in many group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Canada. Additionally, she was a recipient of an individual grant from the Puffin Foundation for her project, "Never Forgotten", which focuses on combating poverty worldwide.

“My art is a reflection of my personality—vivid and buoyant.”