Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Taylor.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Doodling in the margins of my school notebooks helped me pay better attention in class. To this day, I need to draw during meetings to stay focused. In 1983, while living in New York and working as an actor on the soap opera, The Edge of Night, my husband, Garry Henderson gave me a gift of oil pastels and paper. That day something ‘switched on’ and I began to draw and paint every single day of my life for hours at a time. In 1985, we moved to Los Angeles where I continued to work as an actor and artist and also began to show my work in cafes and galleries. After our son Riley was born we moved to Chicago and lived in the Andersonville area. When Lily was born we moved to Riverside, IL where we met Dr. Robert (late) and Ruth Freeark and helped them create the Riverside Arts Center (RAC) which continues to flourish to this day. In 2015, we moved to Miller ‘Beach’ in Gary, IN where we enjoy a lake view and a sweet dog who we found abandoned and starving. We think he’s a 116lb Lab/Pit/Mastiff mix. We named him Arlo.
Please tell us about your art.
Self-taught, my subject matter is usually of a theatrical nature — I’m curious about what happens in that moment between sanity and insanity? I never plan out a painting in advance because I don’t want to ruin the surprise. Each stroke of paint is like removing a bit of wrapping paper from a present. I love color but I like black too. Often people will reference New Orleans or Frida Kahlo when they see my oil paintings.
I also love custom painting furniture which is how I came to name my business Painted Board Studio in 1994.
Patterns attract me and I enjoy creating them on photoshop which I then have printed onto self-stick wall paper at my Etsy shop online.
For the past ten years I have worked as a vendor for Chicago Public Schools creating murals and painting office furniture.
I offer private wine and canvas art parties in my studio.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
Just do it. Do it for yourself. Never do it for money and never do it to please others. I’ve tried and it sucks.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My studio, Painted Board Studio, is located in Miller ‘Beach’, a wonderful little hippy dippy diverse gem of a neighborhood in Gary, IN south of Chicago on the very southern tip of Lake Michigan and nestled in the glorious National Lakeshore Dunes.
I don’t have regular open hours so please call 219-238-6420 to be sure I’m open or to set up an appointment.
Painted Board Studio
621 S Lake St
Gary, IN 46403
jen@paintedboardstudio.com
www.paintedboardstudio.com
Contact Info:
- Address: 621 S Lake St
Gary, IN 46403 - Website: www.paintedboardstudio.com
- Phone: (219) 238-6420
- Email: jen@paintedboardstudio.com
- Instagram: jennifer_taylor_art
- Facebook: @painted.board.studio
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/selfstickwallpaper
Image Credit:
Jennifer Taylor
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