6 + 1 Questions with Taylor Sizemore

Taylor Sizemore is a painter with an affinity for photographic practices. Her painted still lifes allude to the image as source and include all manner of arrangements of symbolic paraphernalia. Their contemporary significance, though, does not prevent them from engaging with traditional still life themes. Like the still life paintings adorning ancient Egyptian tombs and 17^th century Dutch vanitas paintings, Sizemore’s paintings explore the material of daily life, the pleasures (and excesses) of living and the fundamental constraints of time and death. Sizemore's use of these conceptual contrasts evokes both Venusian and Saturnian attributes. The archetype of Venus represents sex, love, decadence and living in the moment, whereas Saturn calls forth the limits and the boundaries, time and death. We can over-indulge in the moment, but we may pay for it later.

Where I think these paintings depart from tradition is in Sizemore’s ability to mine and mimic social media for compositional choices and subject matter. In doing so, she examines authenticity against performative aspects of our self-mythologizing, online identities. The paintings (and their caption-like titles) are funny, acerbic and sassy. A darker reality often hovers beyond the edges. In The Other Side of Paradise, an unpretentious heap of modern bounty spews across the surface. The poolside is a stage for an orchestrated mess of Cheetos, a partially peeled orange, and a coyly placed bikini top. As in most still lifes, the human owner of these consumables is absent. The ghost of High Fidelity whispers in my ear, "...what’s really important is what you like, not what you’re like."  This is a still life, but it could also be a portrait.

Taylor is my first former Longwood student to complete her MFA in Painting! What makes this even cooler, is that she also attended my own alma mater, American University. You can see Taylor Sizemore’s work in person at her upcoming MFA Thesis show Surface Tension: the visible and the hidden, in the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC. The Opening Reception is on April 6th at 5:30 PM and open through May 19th. Look out for an accompanying catalog with an essay, On the Threshold, written by Marcu Civin, which will also be available soon on East City Art.

 

💟🪴☠🌈Thank you, Taylor, for sharing your work and studio practice with us! Congratulations from all of us at Art Habit!🌈☠🪴💟

Taylor Sizemore, The Other Side of Paradise, 2022, Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

1.  What’s your sign? If you are astrologically inclined, feel free to give your Sun/Moon/Rising. Do you identify with the characteristics of your sign(s)?

I am a Leo, born just after midnight on my mother's (and her identical twin’s) birthday.

Sun, Leo. Moon, Leo. Haha! and I’m not sure about my rising. I’m not astrologically inclined but I have friends that are, and I always find it insanely interesting and pretty spot on.

Confident, charismatic, creative, direct, strong, tenacious.
Stubborn, laid back or languid, and indulgent, with expensive taste.

I like working hard in long stints for focused sections of time, and then being playful and indulgent and relaxed, a compartmentalization of time, if you will. Similar to the lion.

 

Taylor Sizemore, Where Are You Running?, 2024, Oil on canvas, 42.5 x 32.5 inches

2.  What is your morning routine?

It depends on the season!

But I hate to end the day and end up working late, into the morning (especially lately), so I prefer to wake a little later if the day allows it – maybe around 9:00, if I have somewhere to be.

I’ll make an americano and take our dog Trace for a walk. She is a Chesapeake bay retriever and full of energy. Sometimes she gets me out of bed.

I always make a priority list the night before so that I know what I’m doing the next day (I like to dilly dally and get distracted easily). I have notebooks full of lists. Along with journal entries and things. I do decide as  little as possible in the morning so I always try to lay out clothes and pack a lunch the night before.

As it stands currently, I get ready and dressed and head to the studio at school about 4 days a week. I’m currently in the second year of my MFA at American [University]. The first year I lived up the street and walked to the studio most days. This year I’m about an hour and 20 commute each way – living in the suburbs of Virginia… Oh the things you do for Love! It’s hard, but well worth it to come home to Joe after a long day.

I use the time in the car to listen to podcasts or books on tape, or blast music to get in the groove.
If I don’t have class, and I’m not TA-ing, I work from the home studio. Which is nice, it allows for slower mornings and some housekeeping and emails.

3. Have you ever cried in front of an artwork? If so, what was it?

Ah, yes! It’s kinda cheesy but it was the first time I had really been to a large contemporary art museum, MoMA, and my first visit to New York City. It was the summer before I started my BFA at Longwood.

I say cheesy because it was Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso.

I sat in front of it for probably 20 minutes and had the singular tear or two roll down my face.

I was 24 and had lofty romantic ideas of what it meant to be a painter (I still prescribe to this to a certain extent) and the idea of ‘the muse’ (I am much more educated and conflicted …It’s complicated).

I think it was the sheer size of the work, the color and invention, the persona and drama, and seeing the texture and movement on the surface. It was such a spectacle.

 

Taylor Sizemore, My Boyfriend Planted Flowers For Me in His Garden; It Was Pornographic, 2022, Oil on canvas, 16 x 12 inches

4.  What have you read (or listened to) lately that might be beneficial for other artists?

I’m not all the way through it yet… but I pick up this book anytime I’m stuck in my practice. It’s a great tool to think and write specifically about your work, and it inspires and invigorates me to get moving in the studio.

It’s titled Mapping: the Intelligence of Artistic Work by Anne West

I “borrowed” it from my ceramics professor and artist, Adam Paulek. I do intend to eventually return it to him and get my own copy.

I highly recommend it. Useful for the longevity of any artistic practice.

  Taylor Sizemore, slutty little oranges, 2023, oil on canvas, 42.5 x 32.5 inches

5.  Tell us four truths about yourself and one lie:

a.     I was a competitive athlete and held  a world record in jump rope at age 9.

b.     If I wasn’t an artist, I would want to be an actress.

c.      I have 2 titanium rods and 13 titanium clamps attached to my spine and part of my spine is fused together with bone fragments.

d.     I drive a manual transmission (stick shift) and always have.

e.     I am ambidextrous due to a roller skating accident.

Taylor Sizemore, Familiar Patterns, 2023, Oil on canvas, 16 x 12 inches

6. This is the wild card question. I know that you are a big reader. What character in a book do you most relate to and why?

I struggled with this question. But my immediate thought went to the narrator of Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palaniuk. Though I would say I connected to the character more when I originally read it, because of my life at the time. It was after my 5th or 6th surgery to remove a breast tumor(s). And I was fat and depressed.

The narrator spills the story of self discovery, and trauma, and being beautiful, through spliced sequences of time. The ideas of presentation, attention, being othered - invisible -,desire and fear, and the detailed descriptions of objects and brands and what they say about the characters that habit them.

It’s dramatic, grotesque, and oddly inspirational.

It describes the dramas of our everyday lives – in a really high key way.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book are:

“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known.”

“When you understand, that what you're telling is just a story. It isn't happening anymore. When you realize the story you're telling is just words, when you can just crumble up and throw your past in the trashcan, then we'll figure out who you're going to be.”

I love dark humor and social commentary.

I like books about why people are the way they are.

Another favorite of mine by Palaniuk is Fight Club. I’m a big fan, I’ve read 9 of his books.

 

Taylor Sizemore, Lucky Charms, 2023, Acrylic on paper, 14 x 11 inches

 

7. What other artist(s) would you like to see answer these questions?

I would be interested to see my professional practices professor, Danielle Mysliwiec, answer these questions.

Or some of my colleagues: Marie B Gauthiez or Pooja Campbell (I think you especially would love both of these women)!

 

 

Taylor Sizemore’s artistic practice is a contemporary twist on the still life genre. Using memories, objects and patterns she describes a life lived from her perspective through rhythm and opacity in paint. Sizemore has familial roots in the small coal mining town of Grundy, Virginia and grew up in Okinawa, Japan. She currently resides in the suburbs outside of Washington, DC. Sizemore graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in painting and drawing and a minor in art history at Longwood University. During her time in Farmville, she worked as an artist assistant and exhibited at galleries including the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts and the Bedford Gallery, where she received first place for a photography narrative included in the exhibition “Art and the Archives”.  In 2023 Sizemore was contracted by the National Gallery of Art for events including “Homegrown” and “Poetry is a Country”, and was a recipient of the Carol Bird Ravenal Art Award for artistic research. Most recently, Sizemore co-curated “Holding Hands, Holding Space'' at the Katzen Art Center, an MFA invitational exhibition fostering care and community among artists. She has also exhibited with The Valdosta National (GA), Sitar Art Center (DC), and Goodwin House (VA). Sizemore has works on paper and prints hosted at Transformer Gallery in Adams Morgan (DC). Her work resides in personal collections across the country, in Berlin, and Japan. Sizemore is currently working on her Master of Fine Arts Fellowship and graduate assistantship at American University.

www.taylorsizemorestudio.com
IG @taysize

All images courtesy of the artist.