Meet Fatima Tall | artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Fatima Tall and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Fatima, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
I don’t see my art as work, It is my emotional processing practice and allows me to do deep feeling. I do have a job on the side that gives me the resources I need to survive. However, it’s not something that I love or really care about doing. If anything it’s just a reminder that I live in a capitalistic hellscape that exploits my labor. I’d rather put my labor towards my art and my community. So when I think about “work life balance” I get upset. I want to spend more time exploring my many selves and getting to the center of my feeling. But I believe that finding the balance between working to live and making the art I love is almost impossible. I have to fight to keep the art alive or else “work” will take all of me away.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The art that I create speaks to my long-standing struggle with understanding structural dissociation (internal family systems) and the immaterial world. I am fascinated by color and the way it can elicit parts and systems out of the body as well as speak as a bridge between the physical and the spiritual. I find that my art is a crucial part of my ritual. It is a routine that helps me get more intimate with all my selves. Conversations with the Past as well as with Shame also appear in my work as ways to address generational harm and trauma.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m fairly new to the Portland area so I don’t know a whole lot of spots but I do enjoy eating at places like Eem, Tiny Bubble Room and food carts like Quesabrosa and Omar’s Gyro. The beauty of parks like Forest park and Laurelhurst take you away from the city in the best way possible.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Three people who have been extremely pertinent to my creative practice are manuel arturo abreu, David Higel, and Sammy Osaro. I’ve had the beautiful opportunity to live and love with these people. Their support has given me the permission to make and create without bounds – to believe in the feeling that comes and allowing that be the art. The community I have received from these three, has been soothing and life-giving. I would not be where I am today without them.

Website: Fatimaabbytall.com

Instagram: Fatima_tall

Facebook: Fatima Tall

Image Credits
Robe coat photo credit to Mario Gallucci