By Mona Lisa Tucker/south news editor
“Some of these paintings, I gave them titles,” he said. “‘Red Plateau’ — I like it as being my Texas painting. It actually takes on the feeling of Dallas in a way.”
In his work “New Beginning,” he used heavy paint and made indentions on it with a thick putty knife, he said.
“This one here is like a sketch for a bigger painting,” he said.
Don Taylor has a master’s in calligraphy from Washington University in St. Louis and his bachelor of fine arts from the Louisville School of Art, he said.
He teaches at Brookhaven College in Dallas, where he has been for 33 years.
SE fine arts chair Joshua Goode said he asked Taylor to do an exhibit on South considering he is one of the main forces behind Brookhaven’s fine arts program.
Goode called Brookhaven “a very strong program to try to emulate in many ways, that’s very supportive of the arts and has a great track record of recruitment and transfer agreements to great schools around the country.”
Goode said Don Taylor is a fantastic painter and printmaker and does not exhibit his paintings very often but agreed to do a show on South with his son, John.
“[It] is a very exciting thing to have, a father-and-son exhibition to see the relation of their work,” Goode said.
John Taylor received his bachelor of fine arts from Washington University and his master of fine arts at the University of Dallas.
John Taylor said his works are generally large scale and vinyl installations.
“Normally, I cover spaces all the way from ceiling to floor with cutout stencils,” he said.
Everything starts from a photograph, he said.
He dabbles with mixed media and plays with many different things, he said.
“Some of my installations go as long as a full football field, 125 to 130 yards long,” he said.
For this exhibit, he made five new pieces to coincide with his father’s artwork.
He created the piece “Orange Space” by blending oil pastel colors and washing the surface with mineral spirits. Then, he rubbed everything over the space and placed a layer of transparent oil ink on top to bring out the colors, he said.
“I’m doing drawing, printmaking and painting all in the piece,” he said.
John Taylor teaches an eight-week art appreciation course, which started Oct. 24 on South. Also, he will return in the spring to do another eight-week course, he said.
“I’m excited to be teaching here this semester,” he said. “Josh is a great person. I’ve known him for years, and when he asked me to do this art appreciation class this fall, I was like, ‘sounds wonderful.’”
South student Derrick Jump curated the show. He picked the color patterns and decided how they would hang, he said. Being a two-artist show, the goal was to make the art communicate with each other, Jump said.
“I’m real impressed with the way their artwork is done,” Jump said. “Both of them seem to have a real methodical approach to their artwork.”
Student Laquasha Levingston takes John Taylor’s art class at Cedar Valley College in Lancaster. She said since being in his class, she enjoys learning about art because it’s not only about paintings.
“He actually has opened my eyes to like looking at different arts,” she said. “He has a good sense of humor and keeps the class going by putting art into it.”
Their work will be on display at the Carillon Gallery 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Thursday until Nov. 10. For more information, call Joshua Goode at 817-515-4641.
