HONOREE:
Tres Taylor
YEAR:
2024
NAME OF ART PIECE:
The Magic Lantern
ARTIST:
Tres Taylor
HONOREE INFO:
"The Magic Lantern" Commissioned by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in honor of Kate Nielsen and Claude Nielsen. (4' x 9', tarpaper, acrylic, putty, and gold leaf.) This captivating work by artist Trés Taylor pays tribute to Kate Nielsen, past president of the Community Foundation, and her husband Claude Nielsen. The painting's whimsical story of Magdalena and a Monk and his enchanted lantern symbolizes the Nielsens' illuminating impact on our community. Their leadership has sparked transformative projects, including the Three Parks Initiative in 2006, which enhanced Railroad Park, Red Mountain Park, and Ruffner Mountain Nature Center. In 2021, Claude Nielsen established the Birmingham Gateways Improvement Fund, beautifying the city for the 2022 World Games. Through Taylor's unique technique of tarpaper, acrylic, putty, and gold leaf, this artwork celebrates the Nielsens' enduring legacy of community enrichment and visionary leadership. Below you can read the story that accompanies the painting
ARTIST INFO:
"There is music all around us and if we let it come through, then we do amazing things. We sing, we dance, we tell our stories. My story is told through color, and it is a story about a monk who loves life so much that he occasionally sneaks out of the monastery at night to dance with the Cuban Cha Cha girls. Wherever he goes, Day Lilies bloom in his footsteps. He rides through the villages on his bicycle and throws flowers at the doorsteps to remind us that everything is illuminated; everything is beautiful."
"I paint my stories on tarpaper (or roofing felt) and use wood putty, house paint, and acrylics as my medium. Sometimes I will paint a story 60 feet in length on a roll of tarpaper and then cut it into smaller "palm of the hand" stories. I am a self-taught artist who believes a paint brush fell out of the sky and landed in my hand at an important turning point in my life, and through my art, I try to bring that invisible state of bliss that exists in us all to the surface.
This is why I paint. "