photo by Beth Logan
Tamara Garvey is a full-time artist in Savannah, GA. She's always loved to read, so her paintings frequently incorporate tiny handwriting hidden within the images — like a fun little reward for those who look closely! She graduated from SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design) in 2008 with a B.F.A. in illustration, and in 2009 won an Honorable Mention in Savannah’s Telfair Art Fair.
In 2010 she moved to NYC, where she spent 7 years selling her work in craft markets to art collectors from all over the world (including actor Adam Sandler and the late writer Elizabeth Wurtzel). Her whimsical drawings appeared in The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, and on Time Out New York’s blog.
Garvey moved back to Savannah in 2017, and three years later joined Gallery 209 on River Street, a 50-year-old co-op where she shows the majority of her original paintings. That year, she also received the Judith Alexander Foundation Relief Fund for Georgia Visual Artists.
She is proud to have been awarded 1st Place in Mixed Media at the Society of Bluffton Artists in Bluffton, SC, in their 2021 Judged Show. In 2023, she was juried into Savannah’s historic City Market Art Studios (public galleries/working studios).
From 2022 to 2025, Garvey hosted and produced the long-running Savannah podcast “Art(s) on the Air,” on which she interviewed local artists, musicians, and authors.
She was also voted Best Local Visual Artist in Connect Savannah's "Best Of" Contest for 2023.