Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor McCabe.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I’m a self-taught mixed media artist. Growing up, I always had struggles understanding my identity, constantly moving in and out of different social groups and changing my interests. I liked to think of myself as a chameleon-molding my outside into my surroundings in a desperate attempt to fit in somewhere. When I left high school, I realized what a mundane task I had hindered myself with. I wasn’t true to myself, pushing my love for drawing, painting, writing, and taking photos aside in efforts to appease others. In my first year of college, I moved to San Francisco. That was an amazing time for me creatively, I let myself blossom into my craft more than ever before. I found out that I really enjoy smothering all of my artistic avocations together into one project. I often use oil, acrylic, magazine pieces or cardboard, and glitter glue to create different textures and feelings within my work. Unfortunately, my time in San Francisco was short-lived, as I had a very bad experience that prompted me to suddenly move home again. I felt crushed that I no longer had such an inspiring city to take ideas from. My efforts were not completely dissipated, however. When I moved home, I had no friends, I lived at my parent’s house, and I took up my old high school job and went to community college. I felt lost, alone, disheartened. But this state of discontent actually helped me to create the best works of art I had ever made and forced me to grow. In the Fall of that year, I made a huge spiritual decision to convert to Islam. I had grown up Catholic and never felt connected to anything. But after spiritually aligning myself, I felt more like me and less like the chameleon I had identified with for so long. I was finally allowing myself to simply be, and this I feel was the final step in securing my identity. I am now transferring to SDSU for my bachelor’s and I am thriving. I learned that you can create your own truth, and all that requires is patience with yourself and your surroundings, as everything truly is temporary, and reassurance in your own skill and craft.
Please tell us about your art.
I do a lot of things- I paint, write poetry, take photos, make collages. I would say my primary works are writing and painting, though. I enjoy being extremely vulnerable in my paintings. I used to be very precise with my linework in drawings and paintings but as I grew older I wondered, where’s the fun in that? Art is meant to be expressive. I began to heavily study my favorite artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and his artistic process. He would turn a TV or radio on, turn the volume up, then he would simultaneously read a book or look at a magazine and scribble whatever came to mind onto his canvas. I began to implement this very sudden, unplanned approach to my paintings and found it to be raw, real, impulsive, and exciting. I normally listen to music or a podcast, or if I am feeling manic I will grab an oil stick and just start scribbling direct thoughts, images, whatever comes to mind in a chaotic scramble until the canvas is full and my brain is empty. Basquiat said his work focuses on “suggestive dichotomies”. I try to address the dichotomies within myself in my work. As a Muslim convert, I often struggle with the pull of my “old life” (substance abuse, self-harm, etc.) versus my new and improved self. I like to explore that feeling within my newer work, and anything else particularly grabbing at my attention, like breakups, friendships, death, prayer, euphoria. I mash them all together.
I want people to feel that sense of vulnerability with my work. I want them to see the chaos that is spewed in front of them and interpret it into their own lives somehow. I create for myself, but I love when people come up to me and say they relate to this word or image because it invoked this feeling and whatnot. I hope to inspire people to be more vulnerable to themselves. I think artists have a very special talent of being constantly vulnerable, always open and inviting both dark and light into their world in hopes of creating something really special.
I also really enjoy doing spoken word. I like that I can get my messages across in a different way than the paintings do. My poems are equally as obscure as my paintings, but I like them that way. Up for interpretation. Most of the time when I am writing a poem, I just sift through my journal and find funny sentences and mash them all together into one big poem. It works pretty well most of the time.
Being able to navigate my thoughts through my work has been the backbone of my entire life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. I am very thankful to have these gifts bestowed upon me so that I may share them with everyone who is willing to lend an eye or an ear.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
Don’t plan. Don’t wait until the idea is just right. Ideas fly out of your brain faster than you can breathe, so don’t sleep on something you feel excited about creating. There will never be a perfect time for anything, so make right now the best possible time. I wish I learned that when I was just starting out. Also, if there is an opportunity for you to show your work, DO IT. You never know what that will bring into your life. Even if it’s small. Even if you’re so nervous, you might pee your pants or puke your brains out. Just do it. Please.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My Instagram is where I post most of my current works(@overeasyegg). I am often in local art shows, my next art show that I am a part of will be Color Theory Club III on June 14 at the Front Gallery in San Ysidro. I will be displaying art as well as doing spoken word.
Contact Info:
- Email: taylorjmccabe@gmail.com
- Instagram: overeasyegg
Image Credit:
Taylor McCabe
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