Interview with Beryl Taylor – Part 1

Interview with Beryl Taylor – Part2

AC4W:  Today I’m very excited to be talking with Mixed Media Artist Beryl Taylor.

We have the great good fortune to have Beryl coming to Art Camp for Women to teach for a couple of days at our Spring Art Camp session May 26 – June 1.

Beryl began life in England and now lives on the East Coast of the U.S.  with her husband, her son and 2 dogs, she also has a grown daughter living in England.

To get a more in-depth biography you can go to our website www.artcampforwomen.com or her website www.beryltaylor.com/

AC4W: Beryl, thank you so much for talking with us today.

Beryl: You’re very welcome, I’m glad to be here.

AC4W: We’ve seen your 2011 schedule and you are going to be really busy this year!

Beryl: Just a little –  Yeah, I try not to put too much in but things snowball don’t they?

AC4W: Yeah you add in one more event, but you forget its going to take you two days getting on the plane and getting off the plane.

Beryl: That’s right.

AC4W: I notice you are teaching at the big venues as well as smaller venues. Without dissing the big big art retreats – after all that’s where I met you – can you speak to the advantages of the smaller venues?

Beryl: Yeah – Well to be quite honest, without dissing the large venues,  I really enjoy the small ones better, because there is a smaller group of people, and you do have the camaraderie and you do get looked after so well by the organizers and you get some people coming in that really want to learn and do the art – You  don’t always get at the bigger ones. I feel like I get spoiled at the smaller ones. And I love them so I’m really looking forward to yours.

AC4W: Oh goodie we’re looking forward to it too.

AC4W: How did you get from embroidery to mixed-media art? Has your art changed substantially over time?

Beryl: Well although it was intense embroidery they did bring a little bit of mixed media in, but it was nothing like you do in this country. It was more about making paper and dying and using bleach and they thought they were at the forefront with all these new techniques.
So then I come over here to America and you have all these wonderful supplies that I have never heard of before. And then while doing work with the magazines they kept saying “have you tried using such and such a thing?” and I’d say “No, but I’ll give it a go. ” I’m really up for trying anything – and either you like it or you don’t.

I suppose it was us coming over here that really got me more into mixed-media. When I got back to England they’re not really – mixed media now for them is fairly new – because they’ve not had such a chance with it as what we have.

And they’re saying well how do you do that? I’m in the middle here and I quite enjoy it – I’m learning from one side and then go teach it on the other side of the world. But it was this country I think that introduced me more to the mixed media

AC4W: It’s that pioneering thing, we always have to do that pioneering thing.

Beryl: That’s right and you’re quite good at it.

AC4W: You didn’t know that was genetic did you?

Beryl: No

AC4W: At Art Camp for Women you will be teaching for two big days;
Day 1 will be Embellishment and Day 2  will be Making Fabric Paper.

ACFW: What would you say to students that are concerned that both beginners and advanced students are in the same class?

Beryl: I think really, what I try to say to students, new ones,  is to leave the fear behind, they’ve got this big fear that they are going to make mistakes.  I think with this kind of artwork there is no mistake. Because a lot of it is down to color that makes people unhappy –  I say paint over it with another color! Gesso –  is my lifeline, I put gesso on everything and then repaint it,  restitch from the top. It-I want it to be layers of layers. Layers can be liquid form like paint or paper or fabric.  I mean,  just keep building up the layers of surprise.  When you get these things that you think are disasters they are what I call happy accidents. And they quite often turn out to be the successes, I think you should  just leave the fear behind, relax and go for it y’know?

AC4W: Oh that’s good

Beryl: The advanced people, they probably got through that stage and now they just want to reinforce or learn something new . Y’know it does work out with the beginner and the advanced students. And I do love  when I have a class like that because it’s so nice when you see the more advanced person  helping out the beginner. It just goes well – so.

AC4W: What do you hope your students take away from the Embellishment class?

Beryl: It’s usually the awe factor – that “I didn’t know you could do that!”  - or y’know – like I’m always being told, “you go to these craft stores and you choose something I‘d never choose!”
And yeah – I do – I usually go to the clearance section and get them really, really cheap and then come home and gesso them – I gesso everything and then repaint it – or put a piece of fabric on
and that’s what I’m going to teach the student in the embellishing classes. It’s something that  I don’t think they see unless you actually show it them,  y’know?

AC4W: Yeah, you’re a woman after my own heart – the clearance racks and gesso…

AC4W: The second class, or the second day is Making Fabric Paper class. Tell me about Fabric Paper.

Beryl: Fabric-paper is something that I started off doing something like, on my course in England.  I couldn’t make my mind up between fabric and paper.  I used to have the fabric as the base and then I cut pieces of  paper and stitch it. Then I had the problem of using a sewing machine to stitch the paper and of course, it ripped. So then its all experimentation, I started off trying this iron-on interfacing on the back and that helped it stopped it ripping . My  tutor liked the way I was incorporating the two together. So over a period of years I thought “well why can’t you make the two as one?” But how would you do it? So it came down to gluing it together and it was really hard [structurally the material was hard, not hard as in difficult]. And it came down to diluting the glue. And over the years to me, it just got better and better, that and the fabric and the paper can be glued together and then worked from . It worked out quite well and I just love it. People say which do you prefer and I say I really can’t say.  I really can’t – they’re both the same for me

AC4W: And the people that are in the class they’re okay with all of this, hm?

Beryl:  Oh they love it – They always say it’s like being back in school – It’s like play day  and things like that. And again there’s no mistakes – the only mistake you can make is maybe the color and what you thought it would be – so okay – so put another one over the  top until you get the color you want.

The other thing I always say to the students is “don’t ever throw anything out, if its not turned out the way you wanted it to.” Because if you put it  away somewhere and go back to it  a few weeks later “Ah that’s a great color – that’s just what I wanted!” Y’know? So don’t throw anything out.

AC4W: Yeah – that’s what my studio looks like…
Beryl: Oh those are the great ones!

AC4W: And what will the Making Fabric Paper class look like?

Beryl: A mess – yeah a mess. There’s going to be paint and paper all over the place.
And of course at the big retreats you have to be really careful, but I always feel that –  that’s when its been a good class – when the place is a mess.

AC4W: Yeah and people have had fun! You dont have to worry at Art Camp we have canvas down over about a half-acre of floor – okay it’s not really a half acre, but we have canvas down and you can really go for it.

Beryl: Oh that’s great – although most students are very careful and there’s not that many accidents so y’know it’s fine. But y’know, they musn’t feel like they have to be careful and can really go for it

AC4W: I could make a comment about Art Camp for WOMEN – but I won’t.

Beryl: What? You mean they’re not as clumsy as men?

AC4W: OMG – Sort of an inate neatness – although I’m the sloppiest of women even so…LOL

Okay – back to the story.

AC4W: During the afternoon of Day 2, the students will bring everything they’ve made and learned together into an art piece.  How do you guide the students in this process?

Beryl: Well I always find that – When I come over here people look at my work… You have this American term – your art pops – POPS. You know you call it – pops out – and things like that I never heard that before.  I think the only way I can work it out is its about
color balance – so if you teach them that -because if you’re going to layer pieces one on top of the other there’s no point in layering two dark pieces or you lose background.
So I have to teach them about maybe a light background and a darker foreground or the other way around so I’m teaching them to make the work pop out.

AC4W: Oh good  - POP? I’m going to put that in as a new class heading

Beryl: Well it came from here!

AC4W: If people want to get a head start or a better idea of what they will be doing at Art Camp what should they do?

Beryl: Well – they could go and sort of look at my book. And I now have two DVDs out that have to do with mixed media.  One has more to do with fabric than the other, but the Layer-by-Layer one is all about the embellishments and you can get them. They have them on special offer at Interweave Press. And Amazon has them as well.

Or just go and hit some of the craft stores , and go and hit the clearance sections buy all the little bitty things don’t worry about the color or if they got writing on them  y’know you can get rid of all that.

AC4W: I have your book right here it is: MIXED MEDIA; Explorations. Blending Paper, Fabric, and Embellishments to Create Inspired Designs by Beryl Taylor.

And it is one of the first craft books I ever bought. I always like to look and learn online, but I had to have this book.

And I have your DVD, Layer-by-Layer, I haven’t got the new one yet, but I am going to get it.

Beryl: I’m trying to start – to get going on Book Two – I’ve been asked about it so much, but what with everything else it’s hard to get organized but  I’m going to do it.

AC4W: I’ve got to tell you your book is useful. I get a lot of books that don’t have – y’know I can’t take them and make something, but your book is actually very well set up for 1. read the instructions 2. get your stuff out and look 3. see what you can put together – it never turns out  like yours…

Beryl: Do you know how that came about – the easy instructions? I tried them all out on my husband.

AC4W: HA! If he could follow them anyone could?

Beryl: Yeah! And it was good, because he would say “Well I don’t understand what you mean by this.” so we thought -  simplify it down.  So then, I said to him, “Now here are all the materials, you go and do it.”  And he really enjoyed it and hopefully that’s how it became so simple.

AC4W: That’s good, that’s good!

AC4W:  What else would you like to say to people coming to Art Camp for Women?
Beryl: Well, to me it sounds amazing, to have that amount of time with a group of women together
- learning and talking, getting  together…It gets you away from work and all the mundane things.
It’s your time isn’t it, then. Hopefully what I’m going to teach you believe it or not can be, no it will all be relaxing. And in the evening you can just have a glass of wine and little tidbits of food and do a little bit of stitching or whatever and I think it’s going to be something really enjoyable  you should go for it

AC4W: It really is – it’s hard to believe when you talk about these classes. But you know it could be you – you’re out in the mountains, with nice cozy fires.  It’s nice!

AC4W: Okay – to finish up here Beryl. Thank you so much for taking time to talk with us. I have one last question and it is really my favorite question. Beryl – what do you love about your life?

Beryl: Oh well absolutely everything – I think the fact of coming to America enabled me to give up a full time job in England as an OR nurse and now I can do my art full time I’m very grateful and very happy to be doing it

AC4W: Thanks very much and MAN I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL MAY

Beryl: Neither can I!

AC4W: Good – thanks very much
Beryl: Thanks very much Lori

Thank you for listening – don’t miss the opportunity of a lifetime – your life – Join us at Art Camp for Women May 26 to June 1 – this year with Beryl Taylor.