Lisa Taylor bares her soul in each of her paintings. She creates these scenes of chaos and luster that entice the viewer at first glance. Two of Taylor’s paintings were placed one by one leading up to the big reveal of her series in the main gallery. The first painting was located in the smaller more intimate gallery, where it grabbed my attention immediately. The striking blues and whites combined with the texture encouraged me to get closer and analyze what I was seeing. I loved that all of her work was non-objective. Abstract paintings aren’t shown as often as I would like, so it was a nice change of pace. I wanted to get to know this artist and find out what her paintings meant to her.
Taylor is originally from Germany and she lived there for thirteen years. Her mother was German and her father was American. At the age of fourteen, she learned english and moved to Georgia, but her travels did not stop there. After staying four years in Georgia, she packed up and left to live in Belgium, where she stayed a total of five years. She has had her fair share of environment changes, but she decided to come back to Georgia and currently resides in Valdosta.
From a young age, Taylor has always been interested in the arts but she actually got her associates degree in criminal justice. It was the encouragement and support from her parents that ultimately led her to pursue a career in the arts. From there, she worked to convey her thoughts and feelings into her non-objective pieces. Taylor mentions in her artist statement, that she does not like to approach her canvas with an idea of what she wants; it can be overwhelming if she places too much focus on a desired end result. She talked more about her approach, saying, “It was just a different feeling sitting in front of a canvas, and you having to figure out your composition and color…to me it’s very hard yet pleasing and relaxing.” Most of Taylor’s paintings have a great deal of texture. With every canvas, she has created a river like pattern that engages the viewer from one side of the composition to the other. The surface looks like a mountain range of colors, almost like she’s taken earth and laid it out to see its contours. To achieve this, she experiments with plaster, canvas, and even her son’s clothing. She wants to manipulate the medium in a way that will depict her honest emotions in the moment. The intensity of her emotions determines her color palette for each artwork. Every painting showcased, had cool tones with slivers of gold throughout them. The tone consisted of variations of blue, and white which she attributed to her calm feelings during the creative process of this series.
Between balancing the act of full time student and mother, Taylor will find the time to commit to her creations. She has always enjoyed abstract and non-objective work, but felt like others did not view it as “good enough art.” For a while she decided to stick with what others liked by creating artworks that appealed to the public rather than herself. This gave her a feeling of confinement and a lack of enjoyment with her work. She prefers the audience to interpret her work in a way that best suits them, but the message she’s conveying with her art, is the act of being true to yourself and your craft. Do what makes you happy and the rest will fall into place. When you are being authentic to your ideas, you show that you believe in yourself.
Bio: Viola is a senior at Valdosta State University. She is an Art Education Major and plans to use her degree to become an elementary school art teacher. Viola will graduate in December 2020 and wants to pursue her dream of teaching in New York.