Meet Your Maker: Ross Taylor

i'm pretty much in love with Ross Taylor's work. you can read my thoughts on his show Phatland here, where i've written a review of the show.

so, with no introduction now needed, here's Ross submitting to my barrage of curious querying ...

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 Ross Taylor, Phatland

Kent:
First up, the meticulous detail in your work is mesmerising. How is your eyesight and what's the status on carpal tunnel syndrome?

Ross:

I have to say that until now, the hands haven’t given me too much trouble… although I did get a minor blood clot in my arm a few years back from drawing standing up! It’s a pretty intense process on the eyes, but working that closely allows you to kind of drift off into the flow of it.

Kent:

It must be meditative working like that. Do you have a plan when you start your drawings?

Ross:
I never have a specific plan, I pick a spot on the paper where I feel comfortable to start and go with that. I often have an early sense of how the composition will work in relation to where the eye should be drawn to next, but it always inevitably changes. You can see the repetitive gestures throughout the drawing, I use them to start a dialogue with the surrounding space, they may end up forming into a rock or some other matter, but it is the process of repetition that allows me into the drawing if that makes sense. I suppose that it’s the closest I get to a form of meditation.

 Ross Taylor, Which way the wind

Kent:
There's a couple of figurative drawings in the mix here and they have the body, especially the head (which we associate with the identity of a figure) dissolving into fragments and forming into landscape. What's your thoughts on the blurring of landscape and portraiture? I mean, I read some of your landscapes as quite psychological in nature, like 'inner' portraits.

Ross:

I made a series of works involving figures to test the specifics of what I was trying to achieve within the drawings. The general idea was to have a greater control of the narrative, but through this I have learnt that I am not necessarily the best ‘interpreter’ of the drawings in their completion (nor do I want to be). I have found that because I work from nothing, the negotiation from one mark to the next interrogates more of me than the depiction of a figure ever could in the landscape, so I now leave the figures out. I think it’s more interesting that way.

Kent:

There's a really subtle inclusion of colour in the work, that's only noticeable at close inspection. What's going on there?

Ross:
The colour is a new thing, parts have been rubbed away to take the edge of that kind of 'illustrated' look, but it also works as a kind of visual pit stop in the composition. I hope that it affords the eye a little breather and then you can re-address the drawing again once more.

Kent:
What's next on the horizon for you Ross? Do you have another body of work on the go or a plan for your next direction?

Ross:

I have a series of smaller works on the go for my next show at the end of September, then I plan on taking a month off for research (not master chef). I would like to develop new imagery and start to work on a new body of ideas that play around with the notion of how everything is interconnected. I guarantee that there will be more rocks...

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brilliant! we'll keep you posted about Ross's upcoming shows and in the meantime you should get down quick to see the fantastic drawings on show here. there's some large-scale works and some medium-sized, deliciously framed works. they look amazing, they are loaded with invisible ideas and connotations, and they keep offering new experiences each time you look at them. plus, Ross is clearly heading somewhere and you can both be a part of that and help make it happen. buy art! (editor's note: bias? what bias?)