Lucky 7: Tatum Elizabeth
“For the most part, sexual imagery is not arousing or erotic to me. I just enjoy cutting it up and turning it into something else.”
In our interview with Jillian Mae back in November of 2022, we posed the question, “Is art erotic just because there is nudity?”. Mae’s conclusion was that, “…often times the work isn’t erotic at all, the viewer just takes it there in their own interpretations.” You’d probably get a different answer depending on who you asked this question. So that’s exactly what we did.
In this interview with Denver-based collagist and art show organizer, Tatum Elizabeth, discusses the evolution of her work, whether or not it is erotic, and how nude images can be ethically sourced to create art work.
We also discuss “Celebrating the Body”, an art show and fundraiser for survivors of sexual assault, that she will be curating in Denver this summer.
I hope you enjoy this interview with Tatum Elizabeth.
1. Can you introduce yourself?
I’m Tatum Elizabeth. I’m originally from Arizona and wandered the west coast/southwest before settling here in Denver, CO.
I am a work-in-progress, and a compulsive creative. Art was never really a conscious choice, but something I’m just compelled to do.
2. How did your household/groups outside of your home treat the topic of sex and eroticism when you were growing up? How do you think that informed your view on sexuality and your art?
I grew up in the first generation to have access to porn and sexual content online. With that came no real understanding of how to protect kids from that content. It was in the classrooms at school where my peers would play a game of getting another kid to look at some form of extreme, graphic sexual content. (Someone would walk away, then come back to their computer where another kid had pulled up a shocking image or video. There would be a big reaction, everyone would laugh, and it was a form of prank.) I didn’t think much of it at the time. It was not malicious, it was kids goofing around. It was the result of pubescent children having access to stuff no one ever really had access to before.
I think this experience influenced the way I see sexual content and my distaste for pornography. For the most part, sexual imagery is not arousing or erotic to me. I just enjoy cutting it up and turning it into something else.
3. Was erotic art always something you wanted to pursue?
Never. And it still isn’t something I necessarily ‘want’ to do, but it’s something that I’m unintentionally doing, I guess. That’s where that ‘compulsion’ piece comes in. I never set out to create erotic artwork; to use collage as a cathartic process to heal sexual trauma, to speak about the importance of ethical porn, or have conversations about sexual abuse, dissociation, and the effects of porn on intimacy. These are all things that just kind of happened as a result of following a creative impulse.
I never considered my artwork erotic, and honestly still don’t. It’s something much more innocent than that. It’s been a way for me to reacquaint myself with the human body as something beautiful and weird and not inherently sexual.
But then there are moments like when someone told me, “That’s a hard dick. How is a hard dick not sexual?” and I have to laugh and remember that art takes on its own life when you put it out into the world.
4. What has the evolution of your work looked like? When did you start exploring erotic subject matter?
It was 10 years ago that I first had a comedic creative impulse to buy porn and collage with it. I was 19 and living in a house with a rotating door of eccentric creatives and it was funny to leave the collages throughout the house for people to find. One piece was just a framed close-up image of double penetration, hung amongst a bunch of other innocuous framed art. It was hard to tell what you were looking at, and only some people noticed.
It was only when people started making comments and assumptions that I was ‘really into porn’ that I started thinking about why I was making these collages. I hated looking at porn. It made me really uncomfortable, but I liked the process of transforming it into something different.
The first time I walked into a truck stop in rural northern Arizona to buy a pornography magazine, I was in the middle of a trauma-based creative writing course. In those classes, I would sit and listen to one story after another of my peer’s horrific experiences with sexual assault. It started off as a cathartic class, but by the end, it was just so heavy and heartbreaking.
I felt such a lack of agency at that time. Bad things could happen to myself or people I loved and there was nothing I could do about it. Looking back, I realized collaging was a way for me to decontextualize and desexualize the images. I could exercise agency and control over the upsetting images, and turn them into something harmless, funny, beautiful, whatever.
After a while though, I started questioning the pornographic sources I was using. I wondered what it meant to collage as a form of healing sexual trauma using images from an industry polluted with sexual abuse itself. I researched abuse in the porn industry, the difference between exploitative and ethical porn, and decided to start sourcing my images differently.
I now only use images that are donated directly to me. It’s important that I know that the person in the image has given it completely consensually.
5. Pick a piece of your work (photo or video) and tell us about it. How did the concept of this piece come together? What story are you trying to tell? Did you like it when you published it, and do you still feel the same way?
I have this analog collage that’s almost beautifully apocalyptic. Two hands are spreading a bare vagina wide open on the top, with a dark sunset-type landscape background, and these stalagmites are moving up from the bottom towards the vagina.
I had a porn magazine, and maybe a Nat Geo, and the piece came together very quickly and naturally. It reminds me of like… the Big Bang, or ‘Mother Earth’ or some kind of dark inception of the world or something. It’s my favorite kind of art piece because I wasn't trying to tell any story. I just found pieces that fit together, and then it told me its own story separate from myself.
Unfortunately, it’s one of those pieces I’ve never been able to show. Not on socials or in public- it’s always been considered too graphic to show. It’s still one of my favorites because it’s from a time before I became obsessed with creating perfect symmetry (which I strive for in most of my mandala-based collages today.) It’s very rough around the edges, imperfect, and analog.
6. What do your personal and artistic futures look like for you?
I have some pretty specific artistic and life goals. Who knows what will happen, but I’m doing my best to follow that trajectory right now.
I’m not naturally talented by any means, and it’s strange knowing so many people who are far more talented, who don’t have as many opportunities to follow creative endeavors.
The only reason I’ve been lucky enough to continue following my creative passions and impulses is because of the tremendous support I’ve gotten from my family. Throughout years of struggling, I was fortunate enough to get financial help, good therapy, time to heal, and a chance to go back to college when I was 27. I didn’t have natural talent, but I had time and space to learn to be consistent and gain the skills necessary to move towards my vision.
Right now, I’m focusing on creating a stable foundation for myself with my art and a career in graphic design.
Eventually, I would like to create an organization that gives resources and opportunities to trauma survivors pursuing creative professions. I’d like to help provide things like therapy, mentorship programs, and creative business classes.
7. What influence do you hope to have on erotic art and content creation?
I hope to encourage people to ‘Celebrate the Body’. Celebrate eroticism, pleasure, and mostly just feeling at home in your own skin. Our body is the one true constant in life, so our relationship to it is incredibly important.
I hope to further this message through events like my upcoming art show and fundraiser, ‘Celebrating the Body’ on June 14th in RiNo.
Anything to plug?
I’m organizing an art show and fundraiser titled ‘Celebrating the Body’ on June 14th. It will showcase artwork, live music, live painting, a raffle, and ‘nude donation station’ where you can donate images for a chance to be included in my artwork.
Call for Artists is open until May 15th. Check out @tatum_elizabeth_artistry on Instagram for details.
Check out my website for prints and tapestries where a portion of all sales goes towards survivors of sexual assault.
