I went to hear Josephine Taylor speak at SFAI on November 5th.... She draws in ink mostly and showed some of the work done with only the sun and stencils on paper, that will be at her upcoming show at Catherine Clark Gallery in SF. Her lecture style was interesting. The symbolism that runs throughout her work becomes even more apparent when you hear how she dodges certain people or subjects that she herself brings up. I know that I wasn't the only one in the audience who was disappointed by her saying how profound an image was and how it is intergral to her work and then not explaining it because of her work not being her therapy. It seems that that is exactly what her work is.
She stated that her biggest breakthrough in creating her work was when she was a student at SFAI and she just began doing simple pencil drawings of her family. Family/childhood issues play a huge part in her work, including alcoholism, sexual abuse, violence and a lot of inappropriateness, vulnerability and inescapability that threaded throughout her childhood. All of these issues are either very subtly or overtly shown in her drawings. The fact that she blow up her drawings to show such intimate gestures exposes everything. I think that she struggles with her strength and vulnerable natures as a woman and it takes a lot of courage to put her personal life out there like that. I liked that she said that these huge drawings are a meditation for her, that she uses a very small brush to create. I also like some of the scenes, her family scenes that look like perfect family moments, yet they are caked with small dots of blood that you have to get really close to see and which she adds as a "finishing touch". This is one of the best local/emerging artists that I have heard and I'd recommend going to her opening at Catherine Clark on November 22.
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