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Chris Taylor (Photo/Kristian Jaime)
Chris Taylor opens up on art, fame and speaking in tongues
As artist and singer Chris Taylor takes the stage at an intimate wine bar to begin his set, he is unassuming and humble…then he begins to sing amid a myriad of his canvasses.
The 39 year-old transplant to Texas from Oswego, New York knows something about plans falling in place and plans falling through. He has even chronicled this journey with three studio albums and a body of visual art that has even appeared on album covers for noted bands like Sixpence None the Richer.
“As of right now, much of my visual art is a stream of consciousness,” admitted Taylor. “When I have a blank space in front of me, I don’t even know what it’s going to be. So when I’m working on it or finishing it, I probably have the same questions that someone looking at it has. I like that though since I don’t normally look for something to paint.”
The seemingly organic process behind his ever expanding body of art has only added to variety of tools he employs in a given piece. To call it mixed media might be doing it a disservice since he has worked with everything from traditional oils to his children’s crayons. What’s more, he would not have it any other way.
“I have been commissioned to do some paintings and many times I’ll chomp at the bit. I’ll wonder where it will go and how it will fit since it will end up as some random image, but at least I know what it’s supposed to be even though I won’t know exactly how it’s going to look,” Taylor said.
The father of two mused about where both his art and music came from amid a background rooted in a deeply religious upbringing and a reality now centered around a family life that, he is surprised, suits him. While the pace of settling down sedates a great many men, he has grown pricklier by choice. Like many parents, he has seen how easily a bad day or off color comment from a classmate can unnerve children.
Yet that has not led to a Rothko-esque explosion on a canvass. Rather, that has translated into a meticulous and busy surface of visual vignettes that dare we call whimsical.
“The only painting I would call famous, and I use that word very loosely, is one done for a friend named Matt Slocum from Sixpence None the Richer,” Taylor recalled. “It was for a record called ‘This Beautiful Mess’ and that was actually a title they used from me that turned into a live recording. They asked me to do a painting for the record and that made it to the album packaging.”
Slocum was lead guitarist for the Austin-based band and co-brainchild behind many of the songs, thus the chance for Taylor’s art to be seen on such a large scale was an opportunity, but not his first foray with fame. He came to know the music industry and all it meant to be a signed artist. With the spotlight growing on his singing career, his art became more a cathartic exercise and less an industry. Yet the dual pursuits were intrinsically linked since they came from the same place inside Taylor.
“There were times where the music was my focus, but art is making resurgence in my world,” said Taylor. “So I’m ready for some definite artistic time. I think what would scare you about my creative process is the boredom of the entire thing. One minute, there’s nothing and another, there’s something and I don’t know how it got there. I would like to call it something woven into my DNA, like a gift from God.”
For as much as the artist and songwriter has distaste for limitations, he recognized the inherent limits of painting and performing live. According to the size of the canvass or the length of the song, therein are the boundaries of the creative process. Yet Taylor is fine with just the snapshot of his life. If for no other reason doing so forces his audience to take his body of work as a complete meal. But even he admits he has much to do creatively.
“To me, with creativity, you’re always chasing something. Usually, the people around you who are interested are chasing you while you‘re after something. Those people that support my art or music are following me trying to go after what I haven’t done yet,” Taylor commented.
This Renaissance man, who can still recall Bible study classes down the hall from his boyhood bedroom, is slowly getting comfortable in his skin. Despite still remembering a healing with hands session where he saw religious frenzy, he has found a peace in the little things like a kind word or genuine appreciation for his craft.
“It’s very hard to duplicate what I have already done and I get creatively restless very easily,” Taylor said in passing. For now, that will have to do, but there is always tomorrow and like a blank canvass, one minute there is nothing and another there is something and you do not know how it got there.
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