Taylor Ramsey
Taylor Ramsey grew up in a household that valued art, storytelling, and learning as integral parts of daily life. An avid reader from an early age, she was immersed in a wide range of visual and narrative influences, from classic Hollywood films and Black cultural staples to Disney animation. Education was treated as essential rather than optional, with reading and curiosity framed as both discipline and pleasure. This environment shaped her understanding of art as something embedded in everyday life, not separate from it.
One of Ramsey’s earliest and most formative artistic experiences came through public transportation in New Orleans. Her father insisted that she and her siblings learn the city by navigating it on buses, a practice that introduced her to visual language in an unorthodox but lasting way. Bus advertisements became her first storytellers. Through them, she learned to read flatness, color, pattern, fashion, and text as communicative tools. Clothing became character, pattern became identity, and typography carried tone. This early exposure continues to inform her use of color, symbolism, and narrative structure.
Ramsey holds a BFA in Painting and is currently an MFA candidate in the Leroy Hoffberger Painting Program at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She describes the distinction between degrees clearly: undergraduate study provided technical foundations, while graduate work demands a fully articulated voice. Her MFA training has emphasized rigor, community engagement, and a deeper immersion in art history and contemporary practice, sharpening her sense of purpose and authorship.
Her studio practice centers on large-scale watercolor paintings, a medium she deliberately chose for its difficulty and volatility. She approaches watercolor as something to be mastered rather than controlled, embracing its resistance at scale. Working in series, she develops bodies of work across multiple paintings, allowing research, repetition, and variation to strengthen her visual language. Recurring motifs such as pattern, color, text, and the fleur-de-lis appear throughout her work, linking pieces together while grounding them in personal and geographic history.
Influences range from painters Kerry James Marshall, Barkley L. Hendricks, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Jordan Casteel to writers and thinkers such as Marcus Aurelius and Isadora Duncan. Ramsey is drawn to boldness, diligence, and attitude, qualities she strives to embody both in her depiction of figures and in her studio discipline. Her process is methodical but intuitive, often beginning with coffee and a slow, deliberate review of what has already been done before moving forward.
Inspiration often arrives indirectly. A single word from a lecture or a passing conversation can trigger a chain of associations that lead to a new painting. Film, television, and documentary viewing play a central role in sustaining momentum during periods of fatigue or doubt. For Ramsey, creative blocks are addressed through continued engagement with other forms of art rather than withdrawal.
At the core of her work is storytelling. While individual pieces may carry specific text or narrative layers, her broader commitment is to making Black stories visible and present. She hopes viewers see themselves reflected in her work and experience the recognition that comes with being seen. Success remains an evolving concept for her, but she is currently focused on ambition, scale, and sustained production, including a large watercolor work that required months of experimentation to realize.
Looking ahead, Ramsey aims to be uncompromising in her pursuit of excellence. She continues to work on her series Steal Back, which recontextualizes Western art history through appropriation and reinterpretation. Selected works from the series will be exhibited at the Peale Museum in Baltimore, a milestone that reflects both her technical rigor and her commitment to reclaiming narrative space
