Tell us a bit about yourself and how you found your way to a creative career.

Hello! I’m Taylor Barron, an American artist and illustrator from Seattle, currently based in Paris. I spend most of my time illustrating children’s books and editorial content, painting, and occasionally creating murals. Outside of my creative pursuits I love reading at Butte Chaumont park, dancing to techno music, and looking for weird things in thrift shops.

I was pretty introverted growing up and spent most of my time in my room, reading and drawing. I was always in awe of my grandmother’s oil paintings and hoped to someday be as skilled as her, and besides that, my first love of art was in cartoons - so I found my way to a program focusing on art and animation. I worked in design, animation, and motion graphics for a few years but never had the fulfillment in the same way that only drawing could give me. I quit my job and moved to Paris in 2020; ready to focus and spend all of my energy on illustrating and creating art full time.

How did you find your medium and style, and who and what influenced you?

I think one of the only things consistent with my style has been inconsistency; I find experimenting with new styles and techniques almost addictive. The other constant is how I’ve always been drawn to color - in my clothes, my decor, and especially in my art. I think my style has been very influenced by my environment and the different media I consume. It went through lots of development, from animation/visual development centric to a more illustrative and flat style. In the past my art was more stylized and geometric, but over the last few years I’ve been drawn to more complexity and realism in certain aspects of my art. Maximalism, kitschiness, and surrealism are some things I have carried throughout each stage of my life and my art, however, and most recently I’ve been very inspired by the work of Dora Maar, Toshio Saeki, and Jane Graverol.

What subjects are you most fascinated with? 

Like most artists, I think my work is strongest when I’m digging into my own personal experiences. As someone who has persistently felt disconnected from both my body and the world, my artistic process is very in tune to my experience as a neurodivergent individual, body image, and the pursuit of understanding others and being understood. Whether or not the ideas in my head are evident to the audience, the process itself is therapeutic, especially when I go into my hibernation/isolation mode. I love to play with darker themes while using a bright palette, as well as kitschy or surreal elements, in order to bridge the gap between appearance, emotions, and reality.

What illustration trend are you either loving or hating at the moment? 

I’m always willing to try something new and get easily inspired by trends. I’m seeing a lot of interesting “borders” or “frames” in people’s work and I’ve been loving it! Gradients have been having a moment for a while now as well, and it’s probably a trend I won’t be leaving behind anytime soon.

How do you create characters, what inspires them, how do you use colour?

Consciously or not, there is probably a little bit of “me” in all of the characters I make. Not in a narcissistic way; just in the way that my preference for aesthetics and subjects will always inform the people I draw. A lot of the people I draw are also inspired from life. I try to take a small sketchbook with me wherever I go just in case I see a particularly interesting person and want to remember their outfit, their shapes, or their face. With color, I used to be drawn to only very bright and saturated palettes, more recently I’m finding that offsetting bright colors with a few subdued tones is more visually interesting to me. Sometimes I will start with a specific palette and completely change it by the time a piece is done; so a lot of trial and error is involved.

If you had to pick a favorite project, which one are you most proud of and why?

I’m the most proud of my mural/installation I did in Paris for the Colors Festival in 2023; partially because it was physically the largest scale project I’ve ever done, but I was also very happy with the outcome and message I was hoping to convey. One of the issues I am most passionate about is climate change and environmental conservation, so I used this opportunity to create something that was not too nihilistic and would hopefully give viewers more optimism and drive rather than despair. I wanted to make it an interactive experience, so with the help of my ex I created a giant hourglass that could rotate, and filled it up with bottle caps I collected around the city. I spent over a month looking into every trash can I passed by in order to find enough bottle caps (I probably came off to my neighbors as a little insane, but it was worth it).

Describe your dream project.

I’ve always wanted to illustrate a graphic novel. At the moment I don’t have the writing skills or the time to take on such a huge project alone - but if someone were to hire me to visually create a world, characters, and help bring their story to life I would die of happiness!

What’s next for you?

This year I’m focusing on finding more editorial projects so I can delve into topics I haven’t had a chance to illustrate. Other than that I hope to work towards having a solo show sometime in the next few years for my paintings!

Rapid Fire Round - Quick answers! And add a few words if you like :)

Morning person or night owl? 

Night owl 

Favorite word

Nostalgia 

Lunch or dinner? 

Dinner, I usually just snack constantly throughout the day

A celebrity you’d like to have a drink with

I wish I had the chance to hang out with Anthony Bourdain

If you could time travel, would you go to the past or the future?

Future, purely out of curiosity

Sweet or savory? 

Savory!

Are you a thinker or doer?

Doer! I never would have become an artist or moved abroad if I gave into my overthinking.

Go-to karaoke song 

Anything ABBA or Britney

City break or beach holiday?

As I currently live in a city, I always want to escape to the beach.

What superpower would you like to have? 

Teleportation because it would make traveling so much easier!

Thank you Taylor!