Boiling Point - Taylor Norris

Mixed Media Collage on Paper Mounted to Panel
18" x 12" x 1"
 
In the folk tradition I make work that is personal and sincere in narrative, obsessive and therapeutic in execution. I render rural-inspired fantasy landscape imagery with a combination of ripped paper, kitsch craft material, and traditional paint pigments. This mixed media laden process has roots in a need to be thrifty by using what was readily available to me for cheap, and the build-up of material highlights the importance of surface texture and abstraction in my work. The cut-and-paste collage technique then guides a sense of realism (surrealism even, given how collage lends itself to chance) back to my images, and as a result they exist in between abstraction and realism. Within this space where I am guided by the whimsy of ripped-up children’s book illustration and the celebratory nature of glitter and metallic paper, my collage paintings are attempts at carving out that mysterious and magical sublime element that landscape painters historically chased with their oil paint.