Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Trimble.
Hi Taylor, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I’ve always had the desire and need to create ever since I was young. I would make animals out of paper, sew pillows for friends and family, and of course color all of the time. Once in my teens, I fell in love with makeup and the creative freedom it gave me. From BuzzFeed articles to viral social media accounts, I was pursuing a career as a makeup artist.
After graduating high school in 2016, I took a semester off to have intensive surgery that November. After an 8 day of hospital stay and a two-month recuperation period, I was finally able to make it back to Galveston, TX on Christmas Eve. The next thing, I know we’re in Mexico for the New Year. It was like a flip of a switch the way that painting took over my soul.
I remember we were on our way home at night when we passed a house on a cliff by the ocean. Surrounded by the night sky my eyes were drawn to the bright warm gallery lights inside, lighting up floor-to-ceiling paintings on display. I don’t even remember the details of the paintings since it was only a second until we had passed the home.
All I know is that I had this urgent need to paint something that impressionable, luring, and inspiring. That January of 2017, I decided that my makeup artist chapter was over and there was a new beginning with me and my paintbrush. The second I got home I picked up some oil paint and brushes and started painting. I was ambitious starting with oil paint and portraiture although it was a smooth transition from makeup to painting.
After discovering this, I attended Galveston Community College, where I took my first painting classes. Thanks to a family friend I decided to apply to The Savannah College of Art and Design. Although I had only been painting for two years and despite being deterred by some professors who were saying it was too ambitious, this made me more motivated and more determined to take on the challenge.
I then went on to be accepted to SCAD and moved 1500 miles from Galveston, TX to Savannah, GA in the winter of 2019. There were many ups and downs, but all lessons learned pushed me to find myself as an individual and as an artist. I realized how important home is to me and how much the different landscapes influence me and my work.
Through my studies I found a passion for creating realist oil paintings of botanical collages; complex compositions created by layering photos I gather of plants, flowers, trees, etc. Whether it’s a bright yellow lily or a half-dead palm, I see the beauty and an opportunity to create.
In June of 2022, I graduated from The Savannah College of Art and Design Magna Cum Laude with a B.F.A. in painting. Now settled back in Galveston, TX, I am expanding my body of work through the freedom of creating my botanical collage oil paintings.
Taking inspiration from home, Savannah, GA, Mexico, and future beautiful places, I can’t wait for y’all to see what I create next.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road, although I knew going into my career that there will always be ebbs and flows. There are times I get frustrated or in a creative rut, but I keep a positive outlook and open mind within my process as well as a determination to finish what I started.
Painting has taught me the peek example of patience and seeing things through to the end. Painting has proved to me that I am capable of accomplishing ambitious ideations and that I am capable of making something impressionable and inspiring to others.
Painting allows me to capture a bright, caring, and harmonious energy in my work that I know brings joy to those who bring my paintings home. No matter how bumpy the road is to get there, it is worth it when I can create to inspire and share with others.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Through my travels thus far I’ve found how much I love and care for these complex compositions in nature. It is so fascinating to me the way nature creates these details in even the smallest of leaves. These organic life forms that we often just pass over or dismiss.
I now find myself taking in all that these different landscapes offer. Where there’s a flourishing bundle of Canna Lily’s or a half-dead palm by a pile of trash, I see the beauty and endless opportunity to create. I collect several detailed photos of the landscapes around me, capturing the beauty in the overlooked. I cut, layer, blend, and adjust the hues of these photos to create a stimulating yet balanced space.
The layered images and the variation in scale are a way of showing the complexity and harmony within these organic forms. Enhancing and amplifying color is my way of depicting these vibrant energies through visual representation.
My paintings portray our connectivity with nature constantly evolving despite the amount of weathering and still finding the strength and light to persevere. A reminder that there’s complexity, beauty, and strength even in the most minute space.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
In the next 5-10 years, I see a lot of change, growth, and opportunity within my career. I see my botanical collages growing like never before.
I have endless ideations that I will bring to life one oil painting after the next. I see my work growing into murals of all sizes from baby nurseries to restaurants to the outside of large buildings creating inspiring and harmonious environments for those to experience.
I see myself collaborating in the art world via exhibitions including sharing my work internationally for everyone to enjoy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.taylortrimble.art/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylor_trimble/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Taylor-Trimble/100008818689507/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TaylorrTrimble
