Taylor McKimens is one of my favorite artists, ever since finding his comic book “The Drips,” his work has been on my radar.  So, using my new blogging gig here at Beautiful/Decay as a good reason to see his studio – I went over to Taylor’s studio at Deitch Projects in New York.  I had to ask the perfunctory question about what was happening with Deitch Projects, and he said things depended on several variables – and didn’t go into any details.  His work in progress completely blew me out of the water, and I walked around with my mouth open like a tween at a Jonas Brothers concert.

Turns out we both grew up in working class families and had spent time working in factories, Taylor listed a bunch of his artist friends who also worked in factories including Misaki Kawai who dressed in a sterile full body outfit while making sandwiches on a conveyor belt.

I said something like “You must really be into R. Crumb,” and Taylor responded saying that was a common misconception, and went on to give a super thoughtful response about why he was not that into R. Crumb.  Taylor explained that he and Crumb both use the language of comics to make images, and that Crumb did something new and made his comics about ordinary people up to a point, but that Crumb’s comics still had the over-the-top kind of drama that are in most other comics.  Taylor said “I’m into anti-drama.”

I asked about the patches and decals on the characters in the paintings, and Taylor said it added to the people in the paintings – that he was interested in adding complexity.  He wants the characters to defy stereotypes like most people in life defy stereotyping.  “There’s people that like some of this, and people that like some of that, and they’re just people,” he said in a laid back voice.

This painting is for Donald Baechler, it is meant to have the same silhouette as one of Baechler’s paintings.

There was a table filled with drawings…

This painting is so beautiful, I could look at it all day.

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