Vintage Telephone Pop Art

Acrylic on Sketchbook Paper

9"x12"

My Facebook Page!

Hey everyone! I wanted to let you know that I have recently made a Facebook page to share all of my work so feel free to like, comment and share! I will continue posting my work on blogger for those of you who are not on Facebook. Thanks! :)

https://www.facebook.com/TaylorVannArt?fref=ts

Manifesting Vision

            Looking back at high school is almost scary for me. Not ‘scary’ in the sense of remembering bad or embarrassing moments of high school, but ‘scary’ in the sense of remembering what my “plan” was for my future and realizing how much it has changed in these past few months. I thought that I knew exactly what I was going to do and who I was going to become from a young age all the way up until senior year in high school. The plan I have had ever since I was in elementary school was that I was going to graduate high school with high honors, have a perfect and amazing last summer, go to college for interior designing, become employed, get married, travel the world and have a family. Well, I obviously graduated high school, but not even with regular honors and my summer was fun, but definitely not perfect. When I moved to the city back in August, I saw a wide range of opportunities. These opportunities consisted of making new friends, meeting professors that are now contacts, being involved and doing projects in my field, and being exposed to the real world with the (sometimes) dangerous combination of no more rules from parents and being able to do almost everything, anywhere and at any time. I can slowly see myself changing in ways where my wants and needs are completely different than what they used to be, and that my interests and talents are expanding into other fields of art that I never pictured would happen. So when I look at my future now as a brand new college student, questions like, “Will you be doing what you have always thought you’d be doing?” or “Will you believe in the same things down the road?” used to be a stubborn “yes” or “no” answer, but now I find myself second guessing those answers and discovering that my “plan” is really to make a good impact on peoples’ lives and living one day at a time to see where life will take me no matter how unusual it may be.

            For my third and final study project, I decided to take a different approach and use sumi ink as the medium to paint an abstract picture of an eye. I have this strange interest in eyes. I think that there is a rhetorical concept of the symbolism behind what the eye is seeing. It can be something that it physically sees or is thinking about, as well as the reflection that is in the eye, which looks like a window and makes me think of “windows of opportunities.” It can also portray the truth about somebody whether it is emotions, passions, goals or dreams. The one reason why I chose to go about this study in the way that I did is because of the transition from high school to real world. No, not college. I say ‘real world’ not only because Columbia is a career school where it feels like I am going to work everyday, but because of the windows of opportunities that are in front of me and having the city of Chicago as a college campus where I am actually living in the real world opposed to a state school campus.

            One thing that I love about painting and creating art in general is that it allows me time to really think. While I was painting this, I thought about all of the obstacles that I am going to have to face in the future. Money, being one thing that I will have to be responsible and wise about as well as finding employment during and after college. I also see a lot of new people in my future as I continue on meeting a ton of new faces. One thing that I strongly believe in is that there is a reason why you cross paths with the people who you meet because they can teach you something that will either help you or hurt you so you learn from it. Staying in Chicago is a definite plan, because the architecture, art, music, culture, deep dish pizza, museums, sports teams, history, neighborhoods and so on made me fall in love with this town and now that I live here, it’s hard to imagine leaving.

            During the middle of this project, a friend of mine who is a writer showed me a video, and I cannot stress enough how impeccable the timing was, almost like it was a message to tell me to take the advice given in this video. It is titled, “What if money didn’t matter,” which is narrated by Alan Watts who talks to the age group of college graduates who are still trying to figure out what they want to do for the rest of their lives. He asks the question, “What would you do if money were no object?” After watching this video a few more times to comprehend everything that he says, I started to think about the decisions I have been making in order to make a living. This video has really made me think about my motives. Would I rather do something that I wasn’t passionate about and make a living? Or would I rather live day by day and be the happiest person in the world? Well, I’ve already answered that question. Like Alan Watts says, I would rather live a short life doing things that I love rather than a long one and be miserable.

            All of the time that I had to think about these questions about the ‘Future Taylor’ answered a few of them, such as the “one day at a time” lifestyle that I want to live by, but rather raised another question that I think everyone tries to answer… When the end of my time is approaching, will I look back on everything and be happy with what I have done? Or regret it, thinking that everything was a waste when I go. If the afterlife recaps this life repeatedly, I want to make it worth living over and over again. Like I said before, I have no idea where I am going to end up or what I will be doing after I graduate, but I know that being here in Chicago is the starting line to my future.

Free Hand Building Sketches

Le Corbrusier & Pierre Jeanneret

Bauhaus, Art & Architecture School

Walter Gropius

Dessau, Germany

1919-1925

Lyon-Satolas TGV Station

Santiago Calatrava

Lyon, France

1994

Street Graffiti Sign

Mini Coffee Painting

Art Forms Collide

An inked line drawing I did for a coffee sleeve art contest where twelve winners get their art displayed for one month on the sleeve of three coffee shops around campus.

Mind Blown!

My newest obsession... Sumi inking.

Self-Identity: First Project Study

A project that I did for one of my classes a while ago that I forgot to put up. (Sorry about the quality... the camera on my phone sucks.)

The Black Keys

I was listening to The Black Keys, and then this happened. :)

Drugs and Alcohol Project Study

This is a study project on ethics that I did for one of my classes. The topic I chose to cover was how drug and alcohol abuse can impact society rather than just being an independent issue. For these type of projects, we pretty much make up how we present it and I chose to combine two mediums of video, and what I like to call "progressive drawing."

Ink Paintings

Take your shoes off... Stay Awhile

No B.S.

Interior Architecture: Drawing I

One Point Perspective Room

Colorful Road

An acrylic painting that I did for fun tonight. This took me about fifteen minutes to do and it is on a cute 'lil 2"x3" canvas! :D

Expressionism Portrait

A portrait I did of my friend in class today made out of compressed charcoal. A little strange and out of my comfort zone, but I kinda like it.

Family Room Painting

A painting on two separate canvases that I did for my parents' family room when they re-designed it!

My Ideal Home Project

Kitchen

Family Room

Foyer and Powder Room

Sunroom

Office

Bedroom

This is a project that I did for my Housing & Interior Design class last term. Absolutely loved it!!

Restaurant Design

 Here is a board of a restaurant that I designed and hand-drew last summer at a camp downtown.

Da Bears!

Okay, so there is a story behind the inspiration to this 4'x6' mural on the garage wall... About a year ago at about 7:00 a.m. I was in the truck driving to school with my brother and my neighbor. I was on a residential road and out of nowhere, there was what sounded like a gunshot, so I quickly looked to my right to find the side mirror folded in and the mirror and chrome completely gone. My first instinct was that some kids threw rocks at us while we were passing and shattered the window. But oh, no. I hit a mailbox. Extremely humiliating, especially when you have to ring the front door to tell the owners that they may have a difficult time getting their mail. Luckily there wasn't much damage to the mailbox, but my side mirror was gone.

So of course, my dad being the handy man that he is, fixes the side mirror. I was expecting to fork out some cash to pay him back, but no... he had a different plan. His plan was to have me paint a mural of the Chicago Bears logo in the garage for all of the hard labor he went through fixing that side mirror (quite honestly, I think it only took him ten minutes). I agreed and when I finally had the time, I fulfilled my debt to him and now whenever I leave the house, I am always reminded to drive safely and stay away from those neighborhoods and residential roads. 

Christmas Gifts

Some Christmas gifts I painted on 3"x4" canvases for some family members.

Sisters at Heart, Never Apart

I painted this for my sister to hang in her apartment. She came up with the concept of having both of our favorite flowers together, hers being the calla lily and mine being the birds of paradise. So precious! :)