We were lucky to catch up with Caroline Taylor recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Caroline thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Since I was eight years old. That’s the short answer. But I also wanted to be a veterinarian and an astronaut when I was eight. Art just stuck with me through the years since I could take it with me anywhere I traveled. And most importantly, it made me feel whole.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I think I was led into art over the last few years more so than choosing it. I had my heart set on teaching art in high school while doing my own side projects to keep myself happy but when my husband was faced with unemployment and our little family needed money, I started offering commissions. Anything to help us pay the bills while I could stay home with my kids and my husband job hunted. I started private lessons for kids and teens and my name spread through word of mouth that I could do commissions for people and that led me into pet portraits, the occasional person portrait, or landscape scene, sometimes a photo session. But it always left me wanting more. I was doing art to survive financially, which was a huge blessing, but I realized I needed art to feel balanced. And those who purchased my artwork at that time would tell me how happy my pieces made them feel. Now my pieces focus on how I perceive nature and the world around me. I still take the occasional commission, but my shift has taken me into more of a fine artist role where I am now able to offer prints of my more popular pieces.

Just to clarify, I work mostly in colored pencils, colored inks and pens, and oil paints. Each piece depends on my mood and what I want to have others feel.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I say I make art to sell art to buy more art supplies to make even more art to sell, which is true in essence. But truly I live by the goal of spreading happiness with my artwork. It makes me feel fulfilled when I am able to capture the light just right on a piece, or add extra colors that others may not normally see in the fur of a black cat. And when someone else sees my artwork and they feel the peace and happiness I had while I was creating it then my goal is fulfilled. And I won’t stop until I fill the world with art and joy!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I don’t think anyone outside the creative industries will ever understand that it takes years of hard work, be it through education in schools or learning on our own, and that what we do it more than just mere talent, it’s all our life experiences of rejection, learning, relearning, sleepless nights, weeks, months, or even years of sacrificing what we want at times to save up for what we need to do our craft. Some are lucky to have resources available at any stage of their lives, but most creatives do not. And most importantly, be willing to pay or even overpay your friends who are artists, bakers, writers! Asking for a discount does hurt our feelings. We can offer one to you, but know we appreciate it when you don’t ask.

Contact Info:

• Website: carrietaylorart.com
• Instagram: carrietaylor_art
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarrieTaylorArt

Image Credits
All of these works are mine, all of them.