We recently connected with Taylor Painter-Wolfe and have shared our conversation below.

Taylor, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I work primarily with felted wool. I learned how make and dye felted wool about 23 years ago when I was in the fiber department at the Kansas City Art Institute, I immediately felt like it called to me in a way other material and processes hadn’t up to that point. Turning wool into felt with just my hands and hot water felt magical then and it still does. I’ve been doing it for years now, but it never gets old or stale. Every piece of felt I create is unique and one of a kind. It never turns out the same way twice.

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.

I am a fiber artist and I specialize in making and dyeing felted wool. Wool is turned into felt by getting it wet with hot water and agitating it. After I create the felt, I dye it and then use it to make fiber art wall hangings. Most of my work is inspired by satellite images or aerial photography and I refer to my pieces as abstract landscapes. There are a lot of processes involved in the creation of my work which can make it very time consuming but I like the fact that I make my own materials and I really enjoy the simple act of making them. It’s all very hands on, physical, and tactile which I enjoy.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had my daughter in the summer of 2019 and then the pandemic started in the spring of 2020. Being a new mother, it was already challenging to find the time I was used to having to devote to my art career and then when the pandemic started all of the shows and other work I had scheduled got cancelled and my childcare options were very limited. I ended up shifting to doing more online sales and commission work and figuring out how to utilize social media to help with both of those. I also had to change my work schedule to working more late at night when my daughter was asleep. It ended up being a good time to focus on commissions since people were at home more and embarking on remodeling and rearranging projects that made them want to add new art to their homes. The schedule was not ideal, but I was lucky to be able to continue making money during the pandemic when a lot of people weren’t and I was grateful to have time to spend with my daughter. It would have been easy to give up on making art during that time, and I definitely thought about it sometimes, but now I’ve come out on the other side and I’m glad I stuck with it!

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think appreciating all that goes into creating handmade, one of a kind art and prioritizing buying art from local artists. When you can purchase something directly from an artist and hear about their process, their story, their creative journey it makes it much more valuable than anything you can buy from a big box store.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.taylorpainterwolfe.com
• Instagram: @taylorpainterwolfeart

Image Credits
Mostly taken by me, Taylor Painter-Wolfe Headshot of me taken by Hershel Self