Robinson makes visceral paintings about healing, coping … – Charleston City Paper
Taylor Robinson creates abstract, material-focused artworks which reflect a journey of learning to cope and heal from trauma and substance abuse.
“I feel like a lot of people look to art because they can’t understand their own emotions. I never thought that I would be able to process my own emotions, and so I really want to have the work inspire people that it’s possible,” Robinson said.
She and her husband Connor use their work to destigmatize mental health through the moniker Visceral Home. Over the past two years, they’ve honed in on a practice where the married partners collaborate: Connor creates handmade frames and surfaces on which Taylor paints abstract images.
What results are wonderful gritty textures that use a mix of natural and artificial materials. For example, a recent painting titled “Hunter’s Moon” includes oil paint, concrete, ground rock pigments, coffee grounds, beach sand and seashells.
Robinson said the works speak as a metaphor for the human psyche — for trauma and healing, the passage of time and the relationship between humans and the natural world.
And the process matters, too, in the meaning of the work. In “Labyrinth,” for example, Connor uses a Japanese process called shou sugi ban, a technique which preserves wood by charring it.
For those who come from dysfunctional family backgrounds, or have a history of substance abuse, the phoenix metaphor comes through clearly: The piece represents burning something down and rising anew from the ashes.
And that’s exactly what Robinson has done, as she shares vulnerably and openly in her artwork, which is always accompanied by beautifully written musings about her journey.
Alchemizing pain into art
Taylor Robinson, who is diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, said she began using drugs and alcohol while working in kitchens at the age of 14.
“I’ve always had a substance problem,” she said candidly, adding that with her past history, “it was basically unlikely for me not to abuse substances.”
She was born in New York but moved around a lot as a kid. That only exacerbated personal issues. In 2015, at age 21, she was hospitalized in Rhode Island — the moment which, she said, led her to finally pursue sobriety.
“I was 89 pounds and completely malnourished. My liver was shutting down and I still didn’t quit right away — it took me a long time to fight and stay sober. I would do 30 days, 30 days, 30 days. I had a year and a half [clean] and then a relapse.”
She had three full years of sobriety when she began working at addiction treatment centers, first in Asheville, and then in Charleston at Oxford House in 2018, where she lived earlier as a patient for two years. The intensity of that job led to another relapse — which Robinson took as a sign that she needed to find a new way to contribute to the conversation surrounding addiction and healing from it — without facing it every day at work.
“I wanted to be a counselor, but it ended up being just way too much,” she said. “I was in a dissociative work, work, work state. And all these people were dying and overdosing.
“That’s when I started figuring out that art was really one of the only ways that I could calm myself down. I could tap into this meditative state working with my hands.”
Now when she shares her artwork, Robinson also shares her story through written words for each piece. Much of that writing comes from her work with cognitive behavioral therapy — starting from a place of writing about intrusive thoughts and finding the root of them, assessing her core beliefs which have been influenced by traumatic events.
“I could look at a painting and know what I was thinking about — they are this holder of time and a record of how much I’ve been able to grow.”
Pursuing the artistic path
The Robinsons first shared their work in Charleston at Julia Deckman Studio in October 2022, followed by a show at the downtown Grand Bohemian Gallery in September 2023 titled And Yet, We Coexist.
The works in that collection especially talk about the sense of home and safety that the Robinsons have found in one another — artworks are titled poetically: “deservingness,” “missing piece” and “forged by fire.”
The couple first met in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Shortly after getting together, they began collaborating artistically. Last summer, they eloped by the Brooklyn Bridge.
“After meeting him, my style completely changed,” Taylor Robinson said. “When he started making the frames, it was this kind of click like all right, this feels like they’re meant to be together.”
The Robinsons work on their art in a shared James Island apartment — the walls are overflowing with large-scale, powerful and potent paintings in neutral tones. Their three cats, Gaia, Freya and Squidward hop and lounge around as Connor Robinson builds frames on their plant-filled patio and Taylor Robinson paints on the apartment floor, using her hands, brushes and palette knives to alchemize emotion into texture.
Though the works are personal, the Robinsons said they hope their art can reach people by presenting abstract and visceral works that invites the viewer to be introspective.
“This is the most fulfilled I’ve ever felt in my life, pursuing art. I want to work towards being more open about my distinct trauma and being an advocate for survivors. I want to talk about the unimaginable pain, how it’s really hard to figure out a way to live through, but on the other side, you can live the beautiful kind of life you want to live.”
The Lowdown
Taylor Robinson
Age: 29.
Birthplace: Huntington, N.Y.
Favorite thing to do outside of work: Go on family walks with my husband and three cats. Gaia and Freya walk beside us off leash and listen to commands like good dogs (but they are cats), and Squidward is walking on a leash (he’s learning).
Your passion: I want to redefine the narrative and statistics of where someone with my story “should have” ended up, and make sure people know they can do anything they set their minds to.
Books on bedside table: The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and First We Make The Beast Beautiful by Sarah Wilson.
Favorite food to eat: Pizza, crab rangoons, mozzarella sticks, veggie ChowFun and Pani Puri.
Favorite beverage: Coffee and the occasional cherry Dr. Pepper always hits the spot.
Five foods you always need in your refrigerator: Homemade ranch, sweet pickled jalapeños, sweet coffee creamer, minced or roasted garlic and fresh mozzarella.
Three people (alive or dead) you’d like to dine with: Pizza on the Obama’s couch with the whole fam (or by a campfire, I’ve thought a lot about this), Steve Irwin and Anthony Bourdain.
Hobbies: Skate, cook, surf, watch and analyze films (particularly horror films), write poetry, search and experiment with as many materials that can produce color and pigment for our art, and find new spots where I can pet wild/and or domesticated animals.
Secret vice: Q-tips. If you know, you know.
Guilty pleasure: Raw cookie dough while watching the first Jurassic Park for the hundredth time.
Favorite musicians: Really hard. Right now I am back in a Modest Mouse, Radiohead, Etta James and Jefferson Airplane mood while painting.
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