Baker Artist Portfolios

Native to Baltimore City Tamara Payne is an interdisciplinary artist, professor, community activist, painter, curator, and performance artist whose work shows a wide range of skillfulness. She is an alumnus of the Baltimore School for the Arts where she began her artist’s practices at an early age in drawing, painting, design, and sculpture. She continued her studies in Fashion at Parsons School of Design, in New York City where she began her love for textiles and fashion. Tamara returned to Baltimore to earn her BFA in painting with a minor in ceramic studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art. 

Having an innate passion for humanity Tamara's work has taken her to poverty-stricken communities in South Africa, The Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico where she participated in health aid and beautification projects while painting murals in poverty-stricken communities. Tamara has been pursuing her own community-based art making in Baltimore City since 2008. She earned her Masters of Community Arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art and would go straight into her community arts practices while also winning The PNC Bank Transformative Art Prize for her public installation work in Baltimore City that same year.  

As a multidisciplinary artist Tamara's interests focus on self-exploration while she explores the constructions of marginalized people through collaborations in multimedia, fashion, public installations, film, assemblage, and performance art. Her work involves holistic practices in healing, communal practices, celebration of life, empowerment and relationship building. Tamara has engaged 100's of community members annually in the making of large 2-D and 3D public art pieces. She coordinates with community leaders to offer workshops specifically tailored to the ages and abilities within each community for various projects.  

As an artist and activist Tamara's continuous contributions in the past few decades to her public art installations, grant writing, and exhibition work have gained her numerous awards and recognitions. Tamara received several community awards along with an “Individual Artist Award” in 2014 for her community mosaic installation funded by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. She was recognized for her community mural work for The Butterfly Effect in Baltimore City by City Council President Nick Mosby in the fall of 2021. In the fall of 2022, she was honored with a second Individual Artist Award on behalf of the City of Baltimore and Mayor Brandon Scott for her exhibition work for Dear Black Girl. Tamara is also a two-time honoree of the Black Wall Street Awards, being recognized for her continuous contributions in Baltimore City for her community initiatives, mural and exhibition work. 

Tamara continues work in her studio in Baltimore City as a resident artist at the Motor House where she continues to explore many ideas of the world to empower and honor all people. Her personal work and collaborations with others in the community through multimedia, fashion, performance, and music are intended to serve as a safe space of healing for all people while honoring her own process. Her work affords diverse viewers the opportunity to become a witness in a journey of healing, and celebration while honoring one another. Her work continues to explore the need to collaborate in search of our most grounded and potent selves. Tamara says, "My work is heavily influenced by my experiences in girlhood, womanhood, relationships with others and the constructions of memory." She welcomes others to join this ordained journey.