Gallery Stroll – July 2005

This month, Gallery Stroll will take place on July 15 from 6-9p.m. In our eternal quest to offer something truly local and underground, SLUG sat down with Camilla Taylor, curator of the upcoming print exchange show titled Inadvertently.

SLUG: You have spearheaded several print exchanges in the past; how will this one differ and what have you refined?

Camilla Taylor: Just getting a gallery to show the exchange is much easier now. Since I’ve done a few in the past and people are accustomed to them now it’s much easier to explain what it is, although I still get people who want to be involved but not exchange work with the other artists, so they want to shown but not participate in the event.”

SLUG: So the title—why “Inadvertently?”

CT: I try to keep the themes open-ended so that people can interpret them without it being very restrictive. I don’t want it to be like fulfilling an assignment, but rather, responding to a suggestion.

SLUG: What is your opinion of the current printers in Utah versus more metropolitan cities?

CT: When Salt Grass Printmakers opened in Sugarhouse, Salt Lake City caught up with many other cities suddenly in that respect. There was a place where printmakers could actually go and make prints, even though they didn’t own a press themselves.

I doubt that printmaking will ever become as popular commercially as painting here, but I see a lot more people willing to try the medium and work with it because of other prints they have seen. There will even be a Utah Printmakers show at the Patrick Moore Gallery in October, and hopefully, I’ll be involved in that.

SLUG: Thinking back to all the shows, was there ever one piece or one artist whose work you have just fallen for? Any stars of the print exchanges?

CT: Xkot Toxsik’s piece in the first exchange, “Citizen,” was incredible, I thought. I was a one-eyed bunny rabbit whose eye shot out from the page with some sort of pop-up book technology.

Big Al Ferguson’s piece in the Misplaced exchange was really wonderful, too; it was a still from a movie screenprinted onto wood.

SLUG: I know you are a very creative and driven woman, so what else can we expect from Camilla Taylor in the future—possibly fashion design?

CT: Funny you should mention that, as I’ve been working on a series of corsets with small paintings on them. I’m also working on a series of kites that tie into the printed doll series, of which the doll in Misplaced was the first.

I’m also trying to finish some small picture books, but for my day job, I make bondage gear. Also this will be the last exchange that I will be organizing in Salt Lake, as I’m moving at the end of the summer to Phoenix, Az. Hopefully other people will continue to organize events like this, but in the meantime, I hope that people come out to at least say bye to me and see all the beautiful work.

Always bold, never boring. Thanks, Camilla, for all you have done for local art. Inadvertently or purposely, see this show at KAYO Gallery, located at 315 E. 300 South. Now get off the couch and support local art!!!!!!