#taylorothomas

Turning In, Taylor O Thomas

"Turning In" when the world fails and when I fail the world, there is this
 still, small voice
 to which I turn. No one will
 find me 
 hidden in white
 noise; it swallows me, whole.

Truth and Dare, Taylor O Thomas

Truth and Dare Bend me over, form my arms to reach around the irony: I’d rather get than give to stars, and hear what dreams they’re dreaming. For though I give my wish and wants, though I ask and keep repeating, I bet they house a truth I’ve yet to dare, to risk believing.

To: Control, Love: God, Taylor O Thomas

I spent two years with this piece, and I still remember in detail the day that it began. It was (and is) my favorite day of painting. This work was (and is) massive. Exceeding me and my space, I stepped out of my white-walled, cream-carpeted apartment and into the woods. Literally. Nailed, hammered, raw cotton canvas I wore like a cape now stretched itself wide between two trees. I approached, I dipped my brush, I reached to make marks on the highest inch, I dug my heels, I poured greys from their cans and I wrote yellow fears and I flung with my hands and the cleanest surface became an image of me, my most heavily-saturated self. I painted on my canvas in my woods for a good fourteen minutes. And then, the sky rained. It seemed to freeze me, careless and relieved. We both became less- tight and less-saturated; the laden-cloth sagged, and my colors wrung out. But I carried my cape and loved every ounce It made me feel, like a masterpiece.

Learning to Walk, Taylor O Thomas

Learning to Walk For most, walking is a process of tying the laces, taking independence, and stamping the ground. But he learned to walk by learning to see through his state, see from his place of being carried.

Playing with Linseis, Taylor O Thomas

This work is a material exploration and play on structure vs. gesture. It portrays my artistic interest in systems of control and the ways that we can act within and beyond them.

My Bottom Line - Limited Edition 1 of 1, Taylor O Thomas

Play...............Find Identity..........Figure Fodder..........First Transfigure...Out body... Lists of words columned the wall of my studio and influenced the direction and intention behind my work for months. This particular two-column list ended up becoming "My Bottom Line." I did not expect for the text to pair up as they did, but the surprising, linear juxtapositions are ones I continue to unpack—falling more and more into an infatuation with words.

Bars Against Chartreuse, Taylor O Thomas

This work investigates what it means to set a bar—high, low, against—someone or something today. It can be a term for implementing success, measuring failure, ensuring protection, or maintaining control. By placing several off-kilter bars into one image, however, I am attempting to jostle the validity of this action. In a world where setting boundaries, bars, and measures are everyday occurrences, I want to bring into question the arbitrariness of such systems—who, exactly, has the power to “set a bar” and how does he or she decide where, or against whom, to place it?