We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tay Paulson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tay below.

Tay, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had started sooner?

There was a time in my life where my lungs had failed and I died. I was in medical induced coma for 6 days, tubed for 7 and on oxygen for 10. During those 6 days I had vivid dreams that were in the forms of paintings. Something would appear as if it was a moving painting. It had the brush swipes and splatters and everything. Then everything would go black till a new painting began forming. I dreamt of family, friends and life. I was drawn to these dreams. I don’t feel like I slept at all while I was in the coma.

When I was officially woken from the coma all I wanted was to get better and paint. I had never painted before but I wanted to do it. When I was finally able to walk again I went a bought like 10 colors, a couple of canvases and the cheapest set of paint brushes I could find and painted my first painting. I painted a witch with a skull crescent moon. It came so naturally I didn’t even base it off of anything.

Later my paintings became my way of expressing myself where words and photography couldn’t. All of them had emotions to them. Sadness, happiness, love, anger, and depression could be seen and I loved that. I could paint but I couldn’t draw to save my life.

As time has gone on I’ve continued my photography and painting but have picked up a few other artistic abilities. I now make resin art, taxidermy art, and calming jars as well. Each type of art has been picked up during really hard times in my life. I love each and every one of my pieces I’ve produced as there’s bits and pieces of me in each one. However, I believe dying and dreaming in a world of painted pictures brought out my artistic side I didn’t know I had. I’m forever grateful for the experience and proud of myself for doing what I love since 6th grade.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Tay.

I’m an artist/photographer. I create paintings, resin art, taxidermy art, and calming jars. I photograph various different types of photography. I shoot boudoir, family portraits, engagement portraits, pet portraits and sometimes shoot at events such as Weddings and work events.

I started with photography. When I graduated 5th grade my teacher, Mr. Swift gifted me with my first legit film camera. The entire time he knew me he knew I wanted to be a photographer when I grew up. All my projects in his class about my future or for art class was about being a photographer. I cherished that camera up until I got old enough for my first cell phone and it had a camera. It was an old flip phone so it’s not like the quality was spectacular but it got the job done. I took hundreds of pictures of everything.

Eventually I was gifted my first digital camera for my birthday. My mom could tell I was serious about photography and she really wanted me to have the tools to flourish. As time went on I’ve had many cameras and have taken thousands of pictures.

I discovered resin artwork about 2 years ago but dived deeply into it earlier this year. I’ve also made taxidermy art in the past and never realized that’s what it was called till recently. I began making calming jars almost 8 years ago when I learned they’re a therapy tool. Since most of my paintings were based off my mental health I wanted to create something based off of others mental health.

All of my artistic abilities came from my mom. I grew up with her paintings, sewing and crafting. It only made sense that I picked it up too. She’s still my favorite artist to this day and every piece she makes impresses me.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is seeing that look on peoples faces when they fall in love with a piece. Sure the faces of interested people are great but the look you see people get when they relate to your piece so much they want it is the cherry on top.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Sure, there’s been many low and high pivots but I think my 2 year hiatus I took to focus on my health was the largest pivot of them all. I realized my business died as soon as I had to step away and that broke my heart after 4 successful years. Building it back up felt almost impossible!

However, in the past year I’ve done 12 photoshoots, had my first event as a paid photographer, have done a couple of interviews, sold numerous resin art and taxidermy art and have had 5 art booths at events. I worked hard to create a following on my social media and seem to be excelling there. Despite my two year hiatus my business is alive and well. I’m very grateful for this.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: TnP.Art
• Facebook: TnP.Art

Image Credits
TnP.art