Maggie Taylor is a digital artist who lives in Gainesville, Florida. After studying philosophy as an undergraduate and art as a graduate student, she taught herself to use Photoshop to compose her images. Her work is featured in Adobe Photoshop Master Class: Maggie Taylor’s Landscape of Dreams, published by Peachpit Press, Berkeley, 2005; Solutions Beginning with A, Modernbook Editions, Palo Alto, 2007; and in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Modernbook Editions, Palo Alto, 2008. Taylor’s images have been exhibited in one-person exhibitions throughout the U.S. and abroad and are in numerous public and private collections including The Art Museum, Princeton University; The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and The Museum of Photography, Seoul.
01.19.10
Teaching Pigs How to Swim
If you have a degree in what field is it? My BA is in philosophy from Yale; my MFA is in art (photography) from the University of Florida. It’s a nice combo: bulldog and gator.
Have you always been able to draw or was it a skill you learned in college? I have not yet learned to draw; I will work on it. As a child I liked decoupage.
What was your first paid assignment? In the mid-1990s I did a book cover for Sophie’s World. That was pre-digital. I don’t do very much assignment work; I mostly make images for exhibitions.
Which illustrator (or fine artist) do you most admire? My husband Jerry Uelsmann because he works much harder than I do and comes up with amazing ideas.
What would you be doing if you weren’t an illustrator? When I was little I had an ambition to teach pigs how to swim. I do not know if there would be a need for this, but it sounded enticing.
From where do your best ideas originate? Long and productive days of sitting at my computer seem to lead to the best results. I’m an in-process-discovery sort of artist and like to experiment visually and see where it takes me.
How do you overcome a creative block? By doing very routine visual tasks.... scanning a collection of objects or retouching an old photograph. Another thing that usually gives me ideas and new materials is going to huge antique fairs or flea markets—“extravaganzas” are always inspirational.
In one word describe how you feel when beginning a new assignment? Fretful. I do not do assignments very often and it gives me a high school flashback.... Starting on a new image is usually a very fragile moment for me and if I ask myself too many questions I can get side-tracked, but once I get something underway and start to like the direction it’s going, I’m usually elated and tend to sing out loud (not well).
Do you have a personal philosophy? Yes. But since it’s personal, let’s not discuss it.
Do you have creative pursuits other than illustration? Keeping the vegetation around my house under control and cooking come to mind. I also trap armadillos in humane live animal (Havahart) traps and move them to more suitable environments than my garden.
What music are you listening to right now? On my iPod I have some songs by Gomez and Bell X1 that work well for running and Cake’s “Short Skirt, Long Jacket.”
What’s your favorite quote? “Chance favors the prepared mind.” —Louis Pasteur
Do you have any advice for people just entering the profession? Be obsessed with your work. Keep learning. Don’t wait around for someone to ask you to make images; just make them.
What’s one thing you wish you knew when you started your career? That I didn’t need to make that many 35mm slides of my earlier work. Who knew?