Karen Tatum
Artist of the Year 2024

 Karen Tatum is a self-taught multi-media artist who sees the world with strong colors and bold lines. Her paintings are created with acrylics, water colors, and mixed media – sometimes all in the same painting! Her work is known for being fun, expressionistic, and full of life. 

Growing up as the middle child of a military family and living in many foreign places, Karen’s rich diversity of experiences gave her a broad view of the world and led her to express herself in her unique artwork. 

Karen’s works has won numerous awards at The Sanford Brush & Palette Club’s Annual Art shows, where she has been a member since 2003 and served as the Sunshine Director, President 2015-2017, Treasurer 2006 -2012, 2014-2015, interim 2021-2022, Art Angels Director, Education Chair, Art Show Chair, Vice President 2023 and Historian. 

Karen has been very involved in Sanford and has shared her creative gifts generously over the years. Examples of her community connection include being a member of the Lee County Arts Council, judging art at the Lee County Fair and the Kaleidoscope program with the Lee County school system, conducting art sessions for summer camp with YMCA, and participating in downtown Sanford’s 2nd Sunday. She also created the public’s first mural at the downtown Artoberfest in 2008. The mural now hangs in the Mann Center. She has shared her passion of painting with the patients of Liberty Commons Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Sanford and the Healing Ceilings Organization that installs ceiling tiles in cancer treatment centers for cancer patients to enjoy during their treatments. 

Her giving spirit is also evident in the number of causes where Karen has donated her work and time across the state of North Carolina including the Temple Theater and The Stevens Foundation in Sanford, Friends of Gateway Foundation in Greensboro, and the Annual Amanda Wall-Corey Haddon Memorial Walk to benefit the Melanoma Research Foundation in Apex. 

When she cannot paint outside, Karen paints in the art studio she made in her home, which she shares with her husband Jim on their farm with the goats, horses, and beloved dog art enthusiasts. 

Karen is currently co-founder and gallery director of Oxide Gallery of Fine Art in Sanford, NC and Lee County Fine Arts. This nonprofit serves to promote art tourism, artistic growth, and provide a fine art gallery for NC artists. 

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