About Myself
Photos by Talia Keyton.
HELLO & Welcome to my site!
My name is Talia Keyton. Originally from the U.K. I moved to Canada in 2007 with my family in pursuit of a better life. Winding up in Winnipeg by accident, I fell in love with this city’s unique charm and the incredible people here. We put down roots and haven’t looked back since. As a recent graduate of the Environmental Design Program at the University of Manitoba I am now embracing my true passion in painting, and building my career as an Artist.
When I immerse myself in creating art about life I feel infinite. I have come to believe that in choosing to engage with this feeling, I am choosing all along the way to reveal more of my wholeness to myself. This sense of oneness I experience through my work is a sensation I will gladly spend my life chasing.
Artist Statement
I am on a quest hunt down the indescribable; to slap instinct out of my mind and into the realm of physicality. It begins with a feeling. I gather it up and soak it in. All the colours, feelings, ambiguities and when I’m ready a fresh surface is waiting eager to receive the urgent expulsions of paint that tell her all about the mysteries I chase within my minds eye.
In my paintings I create a whimsical world of ideals, a combined reflection of my surroundings, with the way I think they ought to be. I use intense colour, pattern repetition and textural change to portray emotion in my work. Spray paint, acrylic and resin, are the mediums I work with regularly. Their endless layering potential always seems to inspire experimentation, which I find creates space for unique results to emerge. In lieu of canvas, I enjoy working with almost anything unusual I can get my hands on; Saw blades, old scrap metal and irregular shaped surfaces are my specialty.
Expression of life in general, and all the different ways that life can manifest; in endless possibilities of colours, sounds and shapes will never cease to inspire me.
About My Work
Photos by Talia Keyton.
A large body of my work is based on how I see the world through “Color-graphemic synesthesia” Which, until recently, was a word not part of my personal dictionary. Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which the stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory/cognitive neurological pathway. Fancy terminology aside – I see colours in words. In my case, written words, individual letters and numbers are all inherently coloured. My synesthetic pieces all start with a word, and a desire to capture the surrounding sensations I experience in their purest form. It can be like describing the indescribable at times. I am ripping instinct out of my brain and into the realm of physicality. The outcome is not always logical. Details are frequently mistranslated and frustration is always lurking around the corner demanding a bite of my resolve. Nevertheless, even an 80% accurate execution of what’s within my minds eye I find to be quite satisfying and always worth the struggle.
I have been drawing ever since I was large enough to wield a pencil, and painting not long after. While I like to experiment, my favourite mediums to work with are spray paint, acrylic and resin. I love acrylic because its layering/blending potential and I enjoy spray paint, mainly because of the speed it exists the can. The incredibly short dry-time of both these mediums forces me to work quickly which allows my logical/rational mind to take backseat while my gut instincts drive the process. Resin on the other hand takes time, patience and often multiple layers in order to achieve the quality of depth I have come to expect in my work. The glass like finish it produces is second to none, and a simple clear coat can change feel an entire piece quite drastically, which makes it perfect for added drama.
