Student paints with
the colors of the wind
Justin Taylor creates with unique perspective
STORY AND PHOTO BY LILY SHAVER
Justin Taylor, a surrealist painter here at Clackamas
Community College, has recently decided to take
his art more seriously.
“ (I have been] donating a lot just to get my work
out there and my name out there. I’ll be having
some paintings in a barber shop here pretty soon,
and then in a bar,” said Taylor.
Taylor didn’t start college at Clackamas thinking
he was going to be an artist. He almost became an
electrical engineer, but instead he chose to embrace
his hobby of creating paintings and drawings.
4<I believe if there’ s anything I could get
fulfillment out of, it would be art,” said Taylor.
Taylor has been creating paintings and drawings
since he was five or six.
“ All of my free time I would spend drawing inside
or outside, and I was setting up still lifes, not really
knowing what the hell I’m doing,” said Taylor.
Taylor’s favorite artist, who is also his art teacher
David Andersen, said, “ He’s an incredible student.
Hfe’s not very loud, he speaks quietly, but when he
does, everybody listens. And he’s highly intelligent,
so what he says has a lot of impact, especially on
critiques.”
Andersen, who has been teaching art classes
from beginner to advanced since 1997, is a big fan
of Taylor’ s.
“ I always know that he’s gonna go, he’s gonna
take that assignment, think through it, and then
go beyond it,” said Andersen.
Taylor described his art as surrealist.
“ It’ s kind of a depiction of dreams or an
interpretation of reality through a dream-like
perspective,” said Taylor.
Taylor said he is often inspired to paint what he
sees in his own vivid dreams.
“ When I start talking about my dreams, people
sometimes don’t believe me or maybe they can’t
picture what I’m talking about. So when I can
transfer that image onto canvas, people can enjoy
how absurd this thing was,” said Taylor.
Taylor also mentioned that music can affect his
work. He likes listening to Pink Floyd while he
paints.
4 Clackamas Print NOVEMBER 25,2015 theclackamasprint.com
“ If I’m playing a certain song, it can have an
impact on how the drawing comes out, the style,
or even the colors that I use,” said Taylor. Even
the sounds of nature can inspire him.
“It’s kind of a depiction of
dreams or an interpretation of
reality through a dream-llke
perspective,”
Justin Taylor
Speaking of the colors that he uses, Taylor said
that he has a thing for painting with red.
“ When I paint with red, there’s just kind of this
emotional attachment I have to it,” said Taylor. He
remembers always preferring the red lightsabers
in Star Wars when he was younger.
Living things are a favorite of his to paint. “ I
always had this fascination with the contrast of
mechanics and organic forms, so kind of like a
robot that’s like part tree and vines and plants
and stuff like that or even artificial human beings
wand things that come from the im agination,”
said Taylor.
Taylor h a sn ’ t ju st created p a in tin g s
and draw ings. He has painted m urals.
“ I did all of the design paintings in the Johnson
Creek Fred Meyers on 82 [Ave.],” said Taylor.
Taylor’s mother, Heather Taylor, remembers
feeling very proud when she saw the murals. “ I
really wanted to just tell everybody who worked
there: ‘Hey everybody, when you see that, just
so you know, that’s my son who did that,” ’ said
Heather Taylor.