We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Taylor Sizemore a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Taylor, thanks for joining us 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 took a meandering path to painting, though I always loved art. I picked up a camera in 8th grade, I took it with me everywhere. I desperately wanted to go to college to learn more about art but it wasn’t an option for me at the time. I compromised and went for International Relations (haha). I had some medical struggles and took a break from school and eventually became a bartender.
A couple years later, I started painting after an injury — I broke my sternum. They were bad, angry, abstract paintings, but I loved the feeling it gave me and I continued. I didn’t know anything about paint but I was experimenting and working a lot in the studio. The year after my injury, at 24, I began my Bachelor of Fine Arts at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. I took my first painting class a year into the program with Professor Lauren Rice and a new world opened its doors. I was originally majoring in photography, but made the switch to painting & drawing almost instantly. I minored in art history which helped develop my understanding of art and reading a visual work.

The only way to learn to paint is by doing and I spent most, if not all of my free time in the studio for the next several semesters; through covid, working in the home studio & zooming into class.
It doesn’t matter how late you start or where you are, it just matters that you start and continue the practice.

For painting and art in general, it isn’t about how fast you go, but more about consistency and the type of life you live, and how thoughtful you are. I always felt like I had started “late” in painting. But the world is full of arbitrary timelines, and if you can ignore the manufactured stress of beginning it makes a difference. It’s ideal to keep a beginner’s mind regardless of how long you’ve been working – it keeps you open to new ideas and opportunities in the studio and in life. My experiences inform my work, and I’m grateful to have both..

Following my BFA, and a year of work, I started my Masters of Fine Arts Fellowship and Graduate assistantship. I wholeheartedly believe academia and the rigor of formally studying fine art was the right path for me. Though inspiration and learning can strike in many different ways.
One of the most essential skills in my practice is wood working. My family comes from rural areas and has a history of working with their hands – my great grandparents used to own a hardware store, Sizemore’s Hardware”. I became comfortable with using saws and moving around the woodshop as a teaching assistant in grad school for sculpture. I started to think about the possibilities of creating my own frames. I designed and learned how to build frames with my dad who worked in that family shop as a young boy.

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?

Hi, my name is Taylor Sizemore and I am an artist. I am mostly a painter, but I also work with wood, magazines, photography, and personal/family archives and objects. My parents are from a small coal mining town in Grundy, Virginia and I grew up in Okinawa, Japan, though we often moved every 3-5 years, we lived there a total of 10. The content of my work relates to my heritage, and my experiences as a petite blonde raised on southern ideals. The mark making and paint application relates to Japanese ink. My work, despite ranging in media, connects through themes of desire, humor, fear, and femininity/identity. The focus of my practice is oil on canvas set inside hand-made pine or poplar wood frames, but I also make acrylic works on paper, collages, and large murals..
Through the genre of autobiographical still life, I accumulate layers of thin washes of oil paint, competing against highly realized areas, utilizing different painting applications in rhythm and opacity. I hand-make each frame, which feels like an homage to my familial roots. The frames serve as a home to oil paintings on canvas and as surface to extend the paint and grapple with the idea of growth – framing the subject matter literally and figuratively. Areas of passivity, diluted or deeply ingrained memories, strong visceral thoughts, and slippery sensuality described through paint and surface to inform objects and context.
A different pace in my practice includes one session, smaller acrylic works on paper of everyday objects that are based on what is found in my daily life or owned by women around me. Additionally, I return to pop cultural imagery through my mixed media collages that incorporate magazines like Southern Home & Garden, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Art News, and Playboy to engage with the idea of what is manufactured versus authentic and reconstructs them into studies.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think a thriving arts ecosystem is based on being in community with one another. The DC arts ecosystem is so alive and full because we show up for one another – at openings, artist talks, studio visits. The best way to support artists is by showing up in whatever capacity you can. Go to opening receptions, stop by the studio, visit the galley, invite your friends. Even if you aren’t close in distance, our phones make art and other locations more accessible. Art is a visual field and we live in a very image based culture, support artists by sharing their work, post on social media, it helps. The most direct way to support an artist is to buy their work. When you purchase a living artist’s work it supports their dream of being able to follow their passion for a living. “So when you are buying a mug or a painting, realize that you are making a difference in the future of our world, culture and society. You are giving voice to those who question things–and that’s much needed in times like these” (Lugo).

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I love people and connecting through art. Being in art spaces and looking at work provides an entrance point for real conversations, new ideas, and joy. The vulnerability in art is powerful and palpable – It’s less about small talk, and more about the things that really move you. Through art you can experience different world views, uncomfortable truths, and common ground. Everytime I look at art I learn something new. Art, in all its forms, broadens the idea of what’s possible. And it’s also just really fun to see how other people’s brains work. I love looking at other artists’ work. Seeing art in person is such an experience, GO!!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.taylorsizemorestudio.com
• Instagram: @taysize
• Other: Newsletter, [email protected]

Image Credits

Greg Staley
Taylor Sizemore