Explore the Work of Artist Tayo Heuser
November 21, 2023
Providence artist Tayo Heuser conjures up her own spirituality in her paintings of geometric shapes.
Text by Meredith Lindemon
Tayo Heuser works in abstractions. She blends the physical with her interpretation of the spiritual world using geometry and color to create swelling repeats in pastels and jewel tones.
âAs long as I can remember,â says Heuser, âI have been interested in spiritual and cosmic phenomena. My artistic oeuvre has developed over decades of work. It
constantly changes, and I donât think it can be put in one categoryâperhaps it could be called spiritual abstraction.â
Living in Providence, she finds support and inspiration in her life from the vibrant artist community there, but the concepts she explores in her studio are born of her experience of a life spent traveling as the daughter of a diplomat.
âI feel like Iâm a receiver,â she says.âWhen I lived in Africa, I used to visit shaman out in the bush, and I was fascinated by their chanting and their mystery. I think that Iâve always been interested in this other world that we donât know about.â
From her studio, housed in one of Providenceâs historic mills, she uses her memories of traveling the world as inspiration for her works, a mixture of watercolors, oil paints, gouache, and acrylics on various types and textures of paper.
âI have a vast space filled with light,â she says. âIt is my chapel. I enter the flow state, and Iâm a receiver for the most genuine elements I want to express.â Itâs in this mill building where she finds the peace she requires to put her works onto paperâa place of stillness where, because of the serenity of the room and the quality of the light, she can quiet her mind so she becomes open to inspiration.
And, like a medium, Heuser calls up her shapes and brings them to life, explaining, âFrom an interior world of mine, where only geometric shapes exist, they surface. I work with imagery thatâs been around from the beginning of time that weâre all conscious ofâthatâs how I summon them. Itâs kind of a spiritual excavation into myself.â
EDITORâS NOTE: To see more of her work, visit tayoheuser.com.
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