Today we’d like to introduce you to Amina Taylor.
Amina, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I have always been an artist. My mother would tell me stories about me drawing on the carpet, walls, or furniture as a toddler. I grew up loving to draw and create in every facet of my life, and I kept working at improving my craft.
I feel that my art started improving drastically in high school when I had really good teachers who were passionate about art. The basics I learned at school, like shading, values, etc, I was able to apply to an extracurricular watercolor class I attended with my grandfather in 2015. This is where I fell in love with watercolors and began using them more and more.
For college, I mostly focused on my graphic design major; however, in my last couple of years, I learned how to combine my art practice – watercoloring, brushwork, and drawing – with design principles. After graduation, I began investing in more professional watercolor paints and materials and worked to build my skills as a designer. In this period of time, I began to define my artistic voice as something rooted in experimentation and self-reflection.
Now I spend much of my time showcasing this artwork, meeting new people, and uplifting the artists and creatives around St. Louis that I have met in the last few years.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Of course, it hasn’t been a smooth road! To get to any point in life, especially as a black woman, life is not smooth. And even when you have the talent and the calling to be an artist, that doesn’t mean that you didn’t improve. I started out drawing as a kid, but I wasn’t drawing realistic masterpieces. I learned how to crochet around the time I was 9 years old, but I never finished a large-scale project until I was 17 years old.
I still struggle with color theory and choosing a decent color palette for pieces, but I have definitely improved after some of my design courses.
And people saw the art and knew it was good, but I knew that there was a lot of room to improve. That’s on the art skill front.
For my career, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I went to school, thinking I would get a job in the marketing field as a graphic designer or art director. I got an internship straight out of college, which turned into an apprenticeship, but after that, they decided not to keep me on because of my lack of experience.
I took a break because I needed one- I had been in school my whole life and jumped straight into work- and in this time started to work on personal design projects and improving my portfolio to start looking for work. I interviewed, cold emailed, cold called, and travelled in hopes that I would receive a job in this field, but nothing was working. My savings were getting depleted, and I got desperate. I had freelance projects here and there, but it wasn’t consistent and wasn’t enough to supplement me.
I knew I had to pivot to something else to make money in the meantime, and was lucky to get the job on the spot to work at Michaels. I had already shopped there all the time, so why not? It wasn’t the same pay, but I felt it was the perfect opportunity to give back to the community and be surrounded by art materials.
After working this job for some time, I was able to get a second job at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. I felt I was dropped right into an epicenter of creativity where I began meeting and befriending other artists who were already established or emerging artists like myself.
I am still struggling financially, but I am in a better position than I was in a few years ago, and I am still finding ways to build myself up and do the things I love.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a multidisciplinary artist. I am a watercolor artist, a crochet artist, and a graphic designer. I love experimenting in different media and trying to combine them with watercolor: ink, gouache, and pastel, for example. I am also dipping my toes into fashion design with my crochet. I started selling different styles of crochet hats, and made clothing pieces for myself and my friends. Over the years that I struggled to get a job in graphic design was when I began to feel more comfortable calling myself a graphic designer. This is because I was growing my skills in that area with tons of practice by working on my own brand identities, personal projects, and freelance work.
I think what I’m known for right now is being busy doing markets, going to events, having nice business cards, and, for my initiative, Forging Black Joy- the initiative to reestablish North County as an arts district while creating a platform for local Black artists.
I am most proud of being able to carry out this initiative with my friend Naysa, who is the co-founder and curator of this project. This past spring, we created a two-month-long arts exhibition featuring our friends (who are emerging local Black artists), showing at ERG Gallery (an art gallery in North County) that kicked off and closed with festivals and had a run of different community-engaging events. I had barely broken into the arts space when we received the Future’s Fund to carry out this project, and had managed to connect and collaborate with multiple local artists, organizations, and businesses along the way.
I think what sets me apart from others is that I am trying to accomplish multiple different side quests of the things I am interested in. I was told that I need to pick a lane from one of my past mentors, which, at the time, I understood why he told me that, but I am now showing that you don’t necessarily have to choose to do one thing. Life is too short not to try something new, and if I have the opportunity to pursue art and fashion, I will do that.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love the love from our city. The Black arts space cultivates so much love and collaboration. I feel that there is a boom in young Black artists- specifically Black queer artists- creating spaces for US to thrive in. I didn’t expect to be a part of that group, but very glad I was able to be a part of that “boom.” There is just something so special about our hustle and desire to pioneer and recreate these safe spaces.
The main downside to our city is the government and the blatant yet implicit racism that stunts our growth. Black people are the reason that St. Louis is dope. Point, blank, period. Nelly, Jenifer Lewis, Maya Angelou, Josephine Baker, Redd Foxx. Yet we are so disrespected and stepped all over. Our historical towns have been bulldozed over, trashed, bought out and built on top of, and poisoned. Some of our more affluent towns are now predominantly white and forgotten. I even believe that asking people what high school they went to- a very popular St. Louis question- is to gauge where you grew up and how people should view you depending on your answer. The St. Louis City government is determined to gaslight its citizens into believing that its Black residents are to blame for North City looking the way it does, when in reality, they and Paul McKee own a majority of it and allow the historical structures to fall apart. The way they attack and set up any Black government official to either force them out or get them put into prison so that they can have sole control of the government. We, Black St. Louisans, already knew how they treat us, and then after the May 16th tornadoes last year, St. Louis City’s games are more clear than ever.
Despite all this, it is beautiful that we Black artists have the strength and the determination to oppose this bigotry and hatred toward us and make safe spaces for us to have fun, collaborate, and be creative. (I notice that the people on the forefront of discussing the May 16th tornadoes are Black queer creatives.)
Pricing:
- Art Prints – $5-$75
- Crocheted Hats – $15 – $45
- Crocheted ZigZag Totes – $100
- Crocheted Heart Pins – $5
Contact Info:
- Website: https://amideetay.art
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ami.dee.tay.art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ami.dee.tay.art/
