LIMINAL: RACCOON 1 & 2 AND SQUIRREL
Cydney Taylor
PDF of this Piece // PDF of Issue 6
Cydney Taylor, “Liminal 1: Raccoon” (Painting)
Artist’s Statement
I have always said that painting (and printmaking, and drawing) is more about doing than talking. It is a process fueled by the lure of infinite possibility, and a love of making and changing. The artist’s statements I’ve written over the last thirty-six years have changed, slightly, from the first body of work until the current work, but my work has been, except for a few moments of doubt and distraction, abstract, non-objective. I’ve really just “kept on going.” I have followed my main influences beginning with abstract expressionism, through minimalism, and neo-expressionism, back to colour field ideas and systematic thinking. I’ve also followed the thread of my own consciousness, leading into the collective unconscious, which is only beginning to show up in the paintings.
When I was asked to make some paintings of feral animals I wondered, momentarily, how that could be part of my journey, how I could use my own vocabulary. It was a unique project. I tried to empathize with the animals I watch from my own stoop in Taos, New Mexico, at the foot of the canyon, where many feral and wild animals live, overlapping with the fairly modest human neighbourhoods there. I had often admired the beauty of the squirrels’ tails, backlit in morning sunlight. I could almost feel the gritty, oily fur and hair of skunks, raccoons, prairie dogs. Texture, a formal, abstract element, became my starting point. The curious, open-hearted faces just came of their own accord.
Cydney Taylor, “Liminal 2: Raccoon” (Painting)
Cydney Taylor, “Liminal 3: Squirrel” (Painting)
Cydney Taylor has a B.A. in Art History from the University of British Columbia (1973), a diploma from the Victoria College of Art in Victoria, B.C. (1982), and an Associate of the Victoria College of Art honorary degree (1988). She has had group and solo shows in Vancouver, Victoria, and White Rock, B.C.; in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia; in Todos Santos, Mexico; in Albuquerque, Taos, Truchas, Vadito, and Panasco, New Mexico; in Bellingham, Washington; and in Sacramento and Santa Cruz, California. She is a member of the group of printers Pressing On. She lives in Taos, New Mexico. For more information on Cydney’s art, visit: http://www.cydneytaylor.com/