Alyssa with her art at the show in November.
When she’s not serving customers at our Northland branch, teller Alyssa Taylor can be found exercising her creative abilities as an art major at UW Oshkosh. Last fall, she took part in one of her first formal art shows, along with other students from her program, and her work is currently on display at Appleton’s Trout Museum of Art as well as on campus.
“I’m a part-timer here at North Shore Bank and hope to continue here after I graduate in December, using my spare time to peddle my art so that I can eventually make a career of it,” she says. “I’m always coming up with new ideas, and I’m thrilled to keep working on them.”
Alyssa — who goes by her first and middle name, Alyssa Love, as an artist — spoke to Shorelines about her work and aspirations.
How did you end up majoring in art?
In high school, my art teacher was wonderful and helped me with a lot, so when I went to UWO, I started as an art education major. But while I was student teaching, I discovered I liked the art part more than the education part and switched my major. It has been one of the best decisions ever. Before, I didn’t feel like I had a passion for anything, and I mostly went to school because I felt like I had to, so it’s nice to find something I care so much about.
Alyssa with her father, Travis, and stepmother, Abbie.
What kind of media do you work in?
Acrylic paint. I need to mask off areas every time I paint, so I need something that dries fast and stays true to its color.
What are you thinking about when you work on a piece?
My inspiration is drawn from plaid. I used to be obsessed with plaid designs when I was little, but I could never quite get them right — something always seemed off. Then, while here in college, I took a class on weaving and learned why plaid looks the way that it does. Plaid is actually an optical illusion. The fibers are woven so closely together that, while it is two different colors, it appears to be a whole new color. So whenever I make a piece, I contemplate what base colors to include, how to arrange everything, and how those colors and ratios will interact.
What interesting things have you learned as an art major?
One thing that has really been a pleasant surprise is that a lot of the stereotypes about artists and people who like art are false. The cliché is people walking around all snooty, calling everything “uninspired.” In reality, it’s just a bunch of really chill people who like to create and/or admire art. Even when I bring people who aren’t artists themselves to an art event, they still have a great time and don’t feel left out.
What kind of longer-term plans do you have right now?
I would love to get together with other artists and organize pop-up shows, which are shows where a group of artists gets together and rents a short-term space.
And right now, I am currently up in the Trout Museum, as one of my pieces was selected as 92nd out of 393 works to appear in the SECURA show. It is up for quite a while, and I encourage people to see it — they have three stories of amazing work from Wisconsin artists. I also have one piece in the Salon Show in the Annex gallery on the UWO campus; I will be showing in the Annex again later, as well, but with several pieces of work up. And then sometime in December of this year, I will be graduating and my work will be up in the senior exhibition.
You can see more of Alyssa’s work and follow her at instagram.com/thealyssalove.