We took a trip to see Professor Taylor at Norfolk State to ask some questions. The following is the outcome of our trip.

Steph: Do you prefer to work with paint or sculpture?

Professor Taylor: I prefer to work with sculpture. I work with painting, but not that much. Painting is more 2 dimensional and I think 3 dimensional. I majored in painting and drawing at the undergraduate level. I don't do any painting or drawing now.

Steph: Have you ever produced sculpture for commercial use?

Professor Taylor: NO, although I have produced work done on commission that was for public display. Right now I am doing a piece to donate to Chesapeake General Hospital. It will be displayed outside of their Cancer Center.

Steph: Who is your favorite sculptor and why?

Professor Taylor: Elizabeth Caplet and Rancousie. I like Rancousie because he gets rid of all the unnecessary things in sculpture and gets down to the essence. The idea of sculpture is to communicate. I majored in Art but minored in psychology in school so I think a lot about emotions and feelings. That is generally what I try to get across in my work. I don't think it takes a lot of superfluous things to get the idea across.

Steph: Do you like to work with marble, clay or bronze?

Professor Taylor: I like all three. I probably do about the same amount of work in each one. I like working with marble because of the resistance it offers. The soft clay tends to get to me after a while. When I first started I worked with marble and soft clay. There was this woman model, she was rather a large woman, we sculpted in soft clay and I got very tired of that quickly. What happens with the bronze is first I try to make a model for the carving and if the model turns out good I cast it.

Steph: Why is math so important in sculpturing?

Professor Taylor: You have to think in proportion and scale. You have to know how to measure how much material you need. If I am working in clay and then I am going to cast I bronze I have to allow for the amount of material I need. You just cannot go out and buy a ton of bronze. It is very expensive. I make it in clay, and then I make a wax model. I then have to transfer the clay to the wax and the wax to the bronze. If you had a figure you got $10,000 for and you bought $5,000 of bronze you don't use you are losing money.

Steph: Do you work with other medium?

Professor Taylor: Not really. I work a lot with clay.

Steph:How long have you been in this line of work?

Professor Taylor: I started carving when I was about 15. So, I have been I the business over 50 years. My father used to carve and one day he told me I should do this so he taught me. We use to carve little boats and men that we would float.

Norfolk State University,Department of Fine Arts