SOMA NewArt GALLERY

Sean Taylor

"The Art of Relaxation" - Artist Statement:

I was never very good at relaxing.

I moved here, and Cape May taught me how to relax.

I first came here with my family back in 1970 and stayed at the Point. I had just turned six. I recently found a stack of photos from that vacation and have made a series of paintings based on those. I call these Scrapbook Diagrams, and in the process of creating them I found myself treating the whole process as an child's afternoon art project, complete with typed titles and explanatory numbered reference points.

The toy paintings in the same room are inspired by found objects from a series of beach walks I made this past winter with my wife, Peri. The titles for these paintings refer to the way I used to  describe my own toys as a child.

Ultraman and channel 29 Roller Derby happen to be some of my favorite childhood television programs.

When I moved here in 1997 I was going through a rough patch in life. I had a lot of anxiety. Everything was sort of difficult and I had to learn how to slow down and focus on something. I had a lot of spare time on my hands and decided to learn how to paint, not knowing that it would become my future career.  "Poverty 97," and "12 years" have something to do with this period of my life.

    In the paintings such as "Aquation" and "Looking for stuff" I'm trying to paint the idea of too much information creeping in to upset the sense of peace--and how we eventually deal with it and move on. That's what the erosion charts refer to-- the unstoppable amount of stimuli that has to be processed and dealt with in order to get back to a peaceful existence.

    On a side note, I  recently found a term paper I did on erosion on the Delaware Bay area when I was in Junior High. So I guess you could say I've been interested in erosion for some time now.

Enjoy!                                    Sean Taylor                             July 31, 2009