JENNIFER MYGATT TATUM
Jennifer Mygatt Tatum is a Sonoma County based visual artist. Her work is about the insight and perspective gained through solitude in nature. It is about how this time and texture reveals itself and aligns us to our innate inner wisdom.
Her work is best known for interpreting her Wandering Women motif through mediums of metal, paint, print and mosaic.
The work is less specifically about “women” as it is the world around and within the human experience. This is interpreted through the lines of the muse of the Wandering Women. She utilizes the materials on hand that speak best to express the interpretation of seeds of ideas awakened while walking in the forest.
In the past two years her focus has taken a dive into techniques related to Mokulito Printmaking. The process begins by sourcing the never ending awe and inspiration found among the woods. Photographs are captured and then referenced to to draw large scale graphite drawings that represent the essence of being in the texture of the forest. These gestural marks are interpreted onto wood using Mokulito techniques, then carved and printed into small bodies of up to four Mokulito prints. The wood substrate is then taken one step further with wood stain, oil paint, and or acrylic paint to create the closing piece.
June of 2023 she stepped into a 30 day self driven artist retreat by the Sea in Denmark. The neighboring forests and sea combined with solitude provided the arena for a new body of work titled “ Essence of Place”. Submerged into a new dance with sunlight and time she focused on five large water soluble graphite pieces.The work is a reflection on a balance of discipline with gesture which is feeding and fueling her current work.
Jennifers practice spans sculpture, printmaking, painting, mosaics and large scale public art. Bridging the gap between mediums, she makes use of wood, wire, clay, mosaic, glass, paint, and ink. One medium inspires and informs the other leading her through her creative process.