SHIRLEY TAYLOR
By Dale Ricardo Shields
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Shirley Taylor received her MFA in painting from the City College of New York and has studied at the Art Students League, the School of Visual Arts, and Parsons School of Design.
Her paintings and drawings are featured in a number of private collections. A native New Yorker, she has devoted the past 25 years to designing and directing arts education programs for children and adults throughout NYC. Her recent works focus on mixed media painting and collage.
“For me, the art-making process, and particularly the process of collage, is one of discovery, contemplation, pursuance, and resolution.
There is a somewhat destructive quality to creating in this way; cutting and tearing things apart then putting them together with other things to make them part of something new. “Finishing” a collage is a way of healing the destruction.
A painter and graphic designer, it was only through a severe physical challenge several years ago that I was able to find the courage, time, and patience to sit with paper, photos, pencil, paint and other materials and allow the inherent rhythm of making art this way to emerge.
This was part of my healing journey. Many of the works that I created during this period were inspired by nature and how the natural elements inform and reflect the human condition. They also, I believe, offer guidance on how we can heal ourselves and the planet.”