"I can't go a week without painting. I'll go crazy -- I mean absolutely crazy," says local artist Tamara Natalie Madden. And when you look in her soulful brown eyes, you know she means it. "I need that release."

Although she's been drawing and painting since she was a child in St. Andrew, Jamaica, she's never needed her release more than in the past few years. Diagnosed with a rare kidney disease a few years ago that usually only affects white men, Madden, an African-American woman, was fighting for her life while in a coma only a few short years ago.

In 2000, she went on dialysis. When she was quite sure her days were numbered, Madden hopped a plane to Jamaica to visit the place she called home. Determined to find a long-lost brother that she hadn't seen since the age of six, she was mystified when their paths crossed almost immediately.

"He looked at me and just said, 'What's wrong?'" she remembers. "He just knew."

She told him, and although he had only really known her for 10 minutes, he offered his kidney. He was a perfect match.

"I just love him so much. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. He's a life saver."

Much of Madden's family still lives in Jamaica, and although she lives in Milwaukee, it's her memories of the island and of her family that inspire much of her work.

"I love to paint the faces of my family. You can see wisdom and truth in faces. Older people's wrinkles say something about where they've been and what they've been through," she says.

Madden is gaining notoriety in the Milwaukee area and beyond for her Jamaican-themed works. She has been shown at several local art hot spots, such as Locust Street, Inner City and African World festivals, and Ardent Music Studio Gallery, Walker's Point Center for the Arts and Wisconsin AIDS Fund's Gallery TBA.

She's even passed the painting bug onto her 7-year-old daughter, Nidalas. But Madden, who teaches art at a private South Side school, would never preach that art is a skill you have to learn in the classroom.

"I love to work with kids, but not grading them. I want them to be free spirits," she says. "It's hard to put a grade on creativity. It's not about money, it's about making yourself happy."

And Madden, who is a self-taught artist, is the perfect example of where drive and determination can lead. In fact, after a PBS producer happened upon a few pillows that Madden had sewn (yet another of her boundless talents), Madden soon found herself profiled on the network's "Black Nouveau" program, which aired in January. She's also in the process of having a book published. "Tanza and the Mango Tree," which focuses on a young Jamaican girl's love for mangos, was both written and illustrated by Madden.

"Tanza jumps over her neighbor's fence and feasts on mangos from their mango tree," she explains. "She doesn't realize she's doing anything wrong by taking the mangos, but she learns a lesson about right and wrong."

No matter what hat she wears -- author, pillow-maker, artist -- Madden just wants to keep creating.

"I don't know what tomorrow holds ... no one does," says Madden. "I've been very ill and almost dead, and I just know that I want to create as much as I can while I can."

Tamara Natalie Madden is a Gallery TBA featured artist. The five-week gallery, held at P.H. Dye House, 320 E. Buffalo, will open Fri., April 25, from 5 to 9 p.m. Hosted by the Wisconsin AIDS Fund, the gallery will be open and free to the public Fridays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturdays noon to 3 p.m.