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WOMAN-MADE MACHINE: An Interview With Heidi Taillefer
By: Kendrick Daye
I see a lot of art. Some good, some bad, some exceptional. When I come across the latter I’m thrilled. Heidi Taillefer’s work has thrilled me. Her quirky and sometimes graphic paintings pull from seemingly everywhere for inspiration. Her work is an original fusion of classical figurative painting, surrealism, contemporary realism and mythology combined with popular figurative traditions ranging from Victorian romanticism to science fiction.
An-Mag.com: How are you?
Heidi Taillefer: I’m fine thanks
An-Mag.com: I sense a strong influence of fairy-tales and myths in your work. Do they influence you?
Heidi Taillefer: Myths are my strongest influences, various mythologies from a cross set of cultures. I lean mostly toward ancient Greek, Christian, and Hindu mythology, whose stories explore the realities of out existence in order to provide lessons and to illustrate the nature of life.
An-Mag.com: Describe your work to someone who has never seen it.
Heidi Taillefer: My work is figurative and symbolic or surreal, where I compose images featuring a recognizable subject such as a person or animal, that is composed of various incongruous visual elements. These are often symbolic in meaning and combine to present a general idea that is either playful and humorous, or deeply philosophical. The combination of separate painted elements (like a counterpart to three dimensional collage work) has parallels with the work of Max Ernst, while their suffused meanings evoke the same exploration as the work of Girogio deChirico. Philosophical musings about the human condition are reminiscent of the work of Paul Delvaux, all of whom were turn of the (20th) century surrealists, and all this is given a contemporary spin that mirrors our modern era, defined largely by technological advancement.
An-Mag.com: Tell me about your background in the arts. When did you know you were an artist?
Heidi Taillefer: I have always drawn, doodled, and dabbled in creative projects, from the time I could smear anything smearable onto and available surface. I sold my first artwork at the age of seven after walking around the block ringing doorbells and asking housewives to buy my drawings. But I never expected to become an artist I always thought I would go into law or some career involving foreign languages. It was a bad waitressing experience up in the Yukon that made me realize art was probably the way to go, and the intensity and exitment I felt at that moment told me I was probably on the right track.
An-Mag.com: What theme if any does your work explore?
Heidi Taillefer: Issues concerning the environment and animal rights, to timeless universal ideas on love, connection, understanding, loss, fear, transcendence, or hope. My life has an uncanny way of imitating what I explore in depth, and I seem to be destined (or condemned) to living out what I put fourth on canvas, even if I already understand the underlying principle. So lately I’ve been focusing on harmony, and turning my fortune in my favor, as much as I can. It’s like a reverse picture of Dorian Grey in a sense. And of course it will only be that way until I’m ready to be beat up by certain realities of life which will force me to look deep within myself to come to new insights, but I’m now choosing to explore themes with greater care in order to keep this bizarre phenomenon within reasonable balance.
An-Mag.com: Who are your creative influences?
Heidi Taillefer: I grew up being influenced by the classics and the art of renaissance masters, as well as Salvador Dali and certain contemporary artists whose work was very unusual. What I notice in myself through the creative process is the relationship it has with third parties, or events. Challenges or obstacles pose problems which require a solution, and if I’m unable to avoid a circumstance or am strongly attached to a problem source, then it pits me against itself and forces me to find the “solution” to its problem. That exploration is the source of ideas for me, as it is for many I believe, and maybe why melancholy is such as strong creative catalyst.
An-Mag.com: What’s your process of creating a piece? How do you know when you’re done?
Heidi Taillefer: I start a painting by landing upon an idea usually hard won out of experience and sometimes through detached observation. I usually begin the piece by planning out a drawing of the image, it can be quite detailed or more basic, the details sometimes being painted directly onto canvas. At times however, an artworks concept can come together almost automatically, independent of any purposeful intention on my part, and end up as a deeply meaningful work nonetheless and almost more so because it was not intended as such. Occasionally I will work paint freely onto the canvas to create textures before I begin, into which I incorporate the drawn image, or I will work the image around these existing textures. I use a variety of photographic references and actual objects to depict in the piece, in addition to working from memory or imagination. I hold off on cleaning the space around me until the piece is completed, so I usually end up surrounded by piles of debris, papers, dried chunks of paint and rags, whatever comes within range while I’m working. They are then cleared away after I’m done, changing the landscape of my workspace until I start on another painting and it all regains its usual state of being.
An-Mag.com: What’s on your Music Playlist lately? Does music influence your work?
Heidi Taillefer: I listen to a very wide and eclectic range of music, from classic rock to jazz, funk, music from the 20’s 30’s 40’s, traditional Mexican mariachi bands, hip hop, electronica and urban alternative, ska dub reggae Louis Prima, Edith Piaf, Mercan Dede….music does influence my work and I think it would be difficult for it not to, since it cuts unobstructed through the rational mind and drifts into the nether regions of the brain which is why we sometimes get transported with no hope of resisting by certain songs that just get to us.
An-Mag.com: If you couldn’t create art, what would you be doing right now?
Heidi Taillefer: Probably something involving a foreign language and shelter animals.
An-Mag.com: What’s your favorite color to incorporate in your work?
Heidi Taillefer: It seems to be cobalt blue…I saw a vibrant, deep, pastel shade of cobalt colored street line against the dull grey pavement, and it made me feel very happy as long as I kept staring at it. So I would have to say a vibrant and electric cobalt blue against a yellow or red ochre, brown or grey.
An-Mag.com: What’s next for you?
Heidi Taillefer: Richard Mille luxury watches, specialty toys, an F1 car (I hope!) an exhibition of paintings in Pittsburgh this spring and two group shows with Museum affiliated exhibition spaces.
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