Pearlie Tayler

Pearlie Taylor was Born in Vance, Mississippi and raised in Chicago. She was the  second oldest of nine children and spent much of her time drawing on scraps of  paper and brown paper bags. Not only did she have an interest in art, she was  also very fond of writing and creating stories. Storytelling was just as important  to her as the ladies she was drawing on paper. Between raising 5 children, at  night, she finished high school and attended Kennedy King City College  eventually moving on to Roosevelt University. While there, her focus changed.  That “art thing” was still nagging at her so, she finished that semester at  Roosevelt and registered at The American Academy of Art. The American  Academy of Art opened a whole new wonderful world into art for her, and thus  her formal art studies began. She used every free moment to learn and practice.  

It wasn’t until the early 2000s that she picked up acrylics and that became her  medium of choice because of its flexibility. Pearlie was widowed in 2002 after  nearly twenty-five years of marriage when the urge to paint intensified. Her  husband was also a jazz musician, and the intensity she felt, was maybe because  he always encouraged her to take more time to paint; or it could have been  because it caused her to think about her own mortality and she had to know  where she stood as an artist in the real world. So, she began life anew as an  artist. The freedom of mind and body, lifted the pressure of just trying to finish a  painting before her busy day kicked in, and in the process her work changed  from being figurative to being wet, loose and free.