Meet Taylor Bosworth | Oil Painter & Jewelry Fabricator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Taylor Bosworth and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Taylor, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I think all of life is a risk. Life can either be a faint ripple or a tsunami wave, a tiny drop or an ocean, lived in the shallow end or fathomless depths, depending on the height and intensity of your courage. Courage being the capacity to not give up on yourself no matter what. What higher ignorance than to give up on yourself when the whole of totality is invested within me. This is what my work is about. I aim to create painted images that dissolve time, distance, difference, alienation and have the capacity to mend, join, comfort, and reconcile. My work attempts to convey the inner process of transformation that we all move through on a daily basis.

Risk for me is living with purpose and authentically. When you take a risk to truly know yourself and to cultivate real self awareness, you get the real gift: life and purpose. My best advice is whatever your purpose is, please make adequate sacred space, attitude, and time for it, and then surrender to it. Get out of its way, with no concern for what might happen next. The more you open yourself up to this sacred narrative, the deeper it will penetrate into you, and more profoundly it will be able to enrich your life. This is the ultimate risk:. to actively choose to participate in your life, by creating your life and becoming a witness to the unfolding of it. To be in the now.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My work attempts to reveal issues of identity present in contemporary culture while exposing the metamorphosis that occurs in the expansion of self. This personal quest to expand my self was achieved for me by getting clean and sober. Getting sober gave me strength I never knew I had. It has opened me up in ways that would have never been possible before. I truly wish everyone this level of clarity and self awareness. May you have to courage to know yourself beyond your ego, the mind and this flesh suit. I have never created so much and with such purpose and real connection. I am literally telling my story via paint.

My most recent oil paintings connect numerous individual images of eyes intertwined with organic nets of lines, and floral imagery. The structure and imagery explore my thinking on the fluidity and unevenness of personal growth and change.

Through the use of eyes as subject matter, I make use of a biological and symbolic language that crosses time and cultures. The process of making my work is also a metaphor for a beginning that spills out from a central composition to expand organically in an unpredictable yet unabashed way; Contemporary influences include artists Kiki Smith and Georganne Deen, and the themes of human condition, birth and regeneration played out in their work. Creating the clarity of the outer shape emphasizes biomorphic images that are inspired by my imagination.

I pay homage to surrealism with the use of biomorphic imagery and reoccurring motifs, these visuals are outlandish and perplexing; meant to jolt the viewer out of their comforting assumptions. Much like Parisian surrealists Eileen Agar and Alice Rahon, I employ fantasy and dream imagery, that serves as a reprieve from the outside world and address the unease that I feel about the world’s uncertainties. In the same ways seen in the surrealist movement, I am exposing my inner mind in anomalous and symbolic ways: uncovering anxieties and treating them analytically through visual means.

I am wanting to investigate deeper within and express through paint a way of stripping away all social/cultural constructs of race, nationality, gender, and sexuality. I seek to bridge the gap in those differences and embrace the discomfort of feeling alien inside our fleshy bodies.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am new to LA, but I definitely have a lot of favorite spots. I would take them out in nature and definitely the beach. Definitely some hiking in Highland park or around Topanga. El Matador is my favorite beach so far, so we would definitely go there. Perhaps watching the sunset over the ocean or in Griffith Park. Casita Del Campo is a really cute Mexican restaurant that has amazing vegan Enchiladas. Perhaps going to Donut Friend for some vegan donuts. Erewhon is great for fresh juices and any kind of prepared food. They have a great vegan and gluten free pizza. Nature Wells on sunset has the best smoothies. Kitchen Mouse in Highland Park has great breakfast items. I am always up for exploring and getting lost and finding new places and things, so I’m sure we would just be on an adventure.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many people that have helped me get to where I’m at in life. First, I am extremely grateful to be apart of a sober community. The fellowship, love and support I have been shown has allowed me to truly actively participate in this thing called life. The love and support of my mother. Friends near and far that consistently show up for me, whether that is emotionally, physically, or even financially. I have a spiritual teacher and mentor who has helped guide me the past 3 years, which has faciliated the space for me to truly know myself; thus allowing me to take such risks in my life and career. I am extremely grateful for the life that I have. It has definitely not been easy and I have been faced with much adversity in my 36 years of existence, but to be able to create, do what I love and to really know myself is a real gift.

Website: https://taylorbosworth.com

Instagram: @taylorleemade