McALLEN — A woman with deep crease-like wind patterns etched across her face looks pensively into space through thick glasses, waves of thick hair bounding away from her head.
On the other side of Joe Taylor’s studio at the McAllen Creative Incubator, an old man’s gnarled fingers wrap around a gun barrel. His tired, penetrating eyes gaze out from under bushy eyebrows over a powerful nose that drops down to a mass of tangled hair forming a moustache.
Taylor, 60, uses graphite to create his portraits of intriguing personalities: Indians, old women, presidents, hillbillies, military heroes and statesmen. Although he has worked with color (he created this year’s McAllen Chamber of Commerce poster in colored marker and pencil), he prefers using graphite to fashion portraits of such dignitaries as local astronaut and McAllen native Mike Fossum, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez (of Rio Grande City) and Rep. Ruben Hinojosa.
Why?
“I think it’s the texture and the shading and the drama,” he said. “I think the drama has a lot to do with it. The black and white tends to have more dramatic effect, at least in some cases.”
The woman’s portrait, he said, is of Winnie Cobb, the mother of several local friends. The man with the rifle, he said, has a much more distant origin. Taylor created that work from a photo of a Zapatista fighter in southern Mexico in an effort to get more focus on the Rio Grande Valley’s culture.
“I get to preserve personal history and family history,” he said. “I get to create an instant family heirloom.”
Taylor is hard-pressed to name his favorite work.
“Every one of them are so personal,” he said. “The memorial pieces are commemorating someone’s contribution and someone’s sacrifice, and the personal pieces become a part of someone’s family history, and that’s a lot of fun to be able to do that. And of course the civic pieces too recognize people, and the other pieces, they sort of recognize and reflect the culture and our history and that sort of thing.”
Many of the pieces in his studio are copies; the originals have been purchased by others.
Taylor began drawing at 4 years old. He enjoyed the hobby and continued to draw throughout his life. He worked at various jobs, including that of an instructor. He’s also worked as a lawyer, but “I kind of tongue-in-cheek tell people I try to live that down.”
About 10 years ago, his artwork gained in popularity, and he decided to pursue it full time; he’s had a studio at the Creative Incubator since it opened two years ago.
His portraits come alive with his talented use of graphite, lines and shadows that awaken the spirit lying dormant within the canvas as though a current of electricity were pulsating through his soft-leaded pencils.
One portrait features an Indian, who rests the butt of a rifle against his thigh, the barrel pointing away as he rises thunderously over the ground, a thicket of feathers adorning the back of his head. Another portrait shows Teddy Roosevelt, lips peeling back to expose gritting teeth, emphasizing his words with a hand cocked upward.
Taylor says the most challenging aspect of his work is capturing the “essence” of his subjects.
“Once I feel l get the essence, then I feel pretty good about it,” he said. “You just have
to try to get the personality of the person. That goes beyond the photographs. I generally, when I can, I try to work from my own photographs that I go out and take myself. But then a lot of it helps in coming to talk with the people and getting to know them and that sort of thing.”
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Travis Whitehead covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4452.
