Hello, my name is Lisa Taylor and I’m a 2D Mixed Media Artist based in Llangarron, Herefordshire. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Carpets and Related Textiles, I began my career as an interior designer, eventually setting up my own small business.

However, twenty-five years ago, I decided on a change of occupation and I trained to be a primary school teacher and worked in a few schools before moving (with my husband and two daughters) to the county of Herefordshire from the Black Country. I am currently working in a small rural school as a Year 5 and 6 teacher and SENCo.

From an early age, being creative has formed part of who I am – both my mum and nan were both avid knitters and dressmakers and they would share their know-how with me. Although, I didn’t inherit their cooking skills. My nan made a delicious apple-pie with the best pastry ever.

Over the last few years, I have picked up a pencil and paintbrush and took the tentative steps to explore and voice my world through art. This hasn’t been an easy road and having read books and listened to podcasts, all artists have experienced anxiety and even imposter syndrome as part of their creative journey.

My art began with illustrating pieces of poetry I encountered. Nevertheless, while it appealed to the buyers of my artwork, and I loved how it rekindled memories for them, deep down it didn’t feel like it reflected me or my inner voice.

As an individual, I can come across as having traits of an extrovert, however, inside I find myself exhibiting characteristics that are more introverted in nature particularly when it comes to striking up conversations with total strangers and learning about their lives. Although, I do tend to speak to myself as a way to explore and organize my thoughts and ideas!

Over the last few months, my art form has developed and changed after been influenced by a number of artists whose insightfulness has led me to realise that I am allowed to express me and my voice in the way I want to and not to be worried or influenced by commercialism.

My exploration in creative practices has lead me to better understand my influences and who I am as an artist, so through inscription, mark-making, collage, paint, colour, embroidery and texture you can experience my self-expression as extroverted energy as well as the restrained and more reflective elements of connectedness and emotions conveyed and captured in my abstract artwork.

It’s scary. It’s freeing. It’s me!

‘This is what art is at the end of the day: It’s an escapism that we all crave’. – Lauren Jauregui.

My art work has been inspired by hedgerows. As I child I would look upon them as the stitches that held the patches of fields together and combined made a rich blanket that covered the countryside. After living in the countryside and being up close to them, I realise how influential they are and for many different reasons.

According to The Tree Council, ‘Hedgerows form the UK’s largest wildlife habitat and have a crucial role to play in halting biodiversity decline and tacking our climate change. Hedgerows provide food, shelter, habitat and vital corridors for a huge range of wildlife. They provide shelter and shade for stock animals, support the amazing pollinators we need for crop production, improve soil health and improve our wellbeing. The birdsong, blossoms and berries, add richness to our lives and help us feel better.’

I came across a poem by Pam Ayres, called Hedgerows, which captures the fundamental nature of hedgerows.

Hedgerow

Now the hedgerow casts its shade,

The sparse, the tall, the neatly laid,

With campions and parsley lined,

And honeysuckle intertwined.

Here a butterfly may rest,

And blackbirds build their sturdy nests,

And little creatures, in the green,

Can creep along and not be seen.

Here may livestock sweetly browse,

Here may sickly sheep or cows,

Amid the hedgerow’s rich allure,

Seek a comfort and a cure.

Then blackberries, and rosehips red,

Sloes and damsons, freely shed, Their autumn bounty, spread the news!

To native birds, and voles and shrews:

Come now, make winter store,

Fatten up, and carry more

To bramble, burrow crevice, lair,

For when the winter boughs are bare.

Regard again, and celebrate,

The hedgerow, with its beauty great,

Which in pollution, ever rife,

Breathes oxygen, to give us life.

When you are asked a question that requires you to share an opinion, an opinion that could be contentious, do you shy away from sharing it? If yes, why?

Is your voice, your opinion not valid? Is that you feel your opinions are not worthy, not educated enough, not funny enough, not experienced enough, not high-brow enough?

I very often shy away from voicing my opinions for many of the reasons above, however, in my artwork I feel I can share my voice, but without worrying what others will think because no one except me knows what is written, what is voiced, what is my opinion about the questions I have put forward on each piece of artwork. Nevertheless, I can choose to share and once you have had time to think what your views are then together we can discuss, or I can, and so can you, choose not to share at all, but keep it to ourselves until the next person looks at it and reflects on the same question. Will they want to share?

Alongside, over the top, underneath, besides the inscriptions are deposits of colours, patterns, textures, illustrations, photographs, other collaged pieces, mark-making and encaustic wax depicting the hedgerow’s tapestry of life. The secrets it holds, the lives it has fed, the lives it has protected, the lives it has cured and the joy it has brought. If they could talk, what would the hedgerow say as it grows in its own uniquely hap-hazard way? It has a mind of its own. It is imposing. It is guarding. It is full of life. Yet, it does so without expectation…

Apart from to protect it and that we must do.