Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Talia Dudley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Talia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I was always drawn to art when I was a very small child, so I’ve always known. I remember the first time my interest was sparked, I was probably about 4 or 5 and was at a restaurant with my family where my dad drew a horse on a napkin. I was intrigued by how the lines and shapes came together to create an image. Since then, I couldn’t stop drawing. I did not excel in school unless it was in art class, and because of that, I knew I had different skills from the rest of my peers. The rest of the class huffed and puffed when it was time for art, but I knew it was my time to shine. I stuck with it until high school, where I took AP Studio Art and received a four on the AP exam. My high school art teacher, Mr. Szeto, encouraged me to continue studying art in college, so I did. After that, I received a scholarship to study art at UofA, and hopefully, the rest will be history!
Talia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My work explores dreamscapes and reveals a guiding design in which the subconscious organizes the mind. One way to interpret dreams is as a collection of the subconscious: memories, traumas, and ideas. The subconscious haphazardly assemble them in place while we sleep, creating structures and places with strange doors but familiar frames. In 2022, I was indexed as a Techspressionist artist. In 2023, I had my first two solo shows, including my first out-of-state shows, in NV and CA. In 2024, I was awarded my first fully funded residency at Rancho Linda Vista Artist Community in Oracle, AZ, and exhibited in my first exhibition in Utah. Soon after, I was highlighted in 3 different news articles, including Gilbert Sun, The Mesa Tribune, and Mesa Independant. Recently, I received my first magazine publication in the Nov/Dec edition of LUXE Arizona.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Having full creative authority over my work is very rewarding. As a fine artist, my art is made from my heart; it’s, in a sense, my diary. I get to share all of myself with my audience, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’m not worried about what drives sales or what makes the best decoration; I’m interested in thoughts, feelings, and emotions. I want to move people. There’s a lot of honesty in self-expression, and I enjoy that.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I’m interested in learning about myself. The more in-depth I get within my practice the farther I can travel into my memories. As time has passed I’ve organized my thoughts and emotions into rooms, houses, buildings, and cities. I get to revisit those parts and places or find the parts that I’ve hidden. It’s magical and sometimes ominous to open boxes and doors, where you’ve stored some of your most precious items as memories, seeing them, taking them out, and looking at them. Right now, I’m particularly interested in the Greek myths of King Minos and the Minotaur. I think a lot about Ariadne’s thread and how Theseus used it to navigate the labyrinth. I like to think about how the thread moved through the labyrinth, how it was pulled, bound, and woven around the architecture, and how the thread was taut in some areas and loosely folded in others. I like to think of the subconscious as a place. A door, a room, a city, a labyrinth, and when I’m looking inward and moving through these places, it seems I’ve also pulled a thread through. Sometimes the thread lets me know I’ve been there before, but it mostly tells me I can get back.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://taliajdudley.com
- Instagram: @taliajdudleyart
Image Credits
Belinda Aspinall
Talia Dudley
Mike Dudley