Artist Statement
In response to the display of racial hatred that occurred in Charlottesville, VA, in 2017, I made a pilgrimage to Selma, AL, where I took photographs of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. I researched historical documents, listed to Martin Luther King Jr's victory speech in Montgomery and watched videos of the marches of 1965. In response, I created two paintings and a poem. I also worked with a musician who produced a sound track from the overhead traffic I recorded under the bridge. Instead of portraying the top of the bridge, I chose to focus on the underbelly: the traditional concrete structure of piers and arches. Arch, Edmund Pettus Bridge, is my attempt to express how tradition can make us feel secure and righteous in our beliefs but it can also keep us from evolving to a better self, a transformed self that has a broader concept of who we are as human beings. The symbol of the arch in the painting expresses my belief that we can transform, we can become a more united country.
Artist Biography
Within Taylor's paintings, synchronistic connections are made, as Jung described it, between the subconscious to both natural and man-made forms encountered in her daily experiences and travels. Her paintings become "snapshots" of the subconscious, which places them in the Surrealistic realm. The images in the paintings contain symbolic form of specific aspects of the human experience or condition.
Taylor is a retired art teacher and art administrator of thirty years, now painting full-time. Her works have been accepted by jurors such as Peter Schjeldahl, Jerry Saltz and Martha Mayer Erlebacher. She has received numerous awards and recognition in national and regional exhibitions. Currently, her paintings are represented by The Carolina Gallery of Fine Art, Highlands, NC.
Taylor is a retired art teacher and art administrator of thirty years, now painting full-time. Her works have been accepted by jurors such as Peter Schjeldahl, Jerry Saltz and Martha Mayer Erlebacher. She has received numerous awards and recognition in national and regional exhibitions. Currently, her paintings are represented by The Carolina Gallery of Fine Art, Highlands, NC.