Moe Taylor was born on the Prairies and resides by the shores of Semiahmoo Bay in British Columbia. She draws much of her inspiration from the natural surroundings of the BC coast. Taylor has studied fine art at Emily Carr College of Art & Design.
Rescuing a series of tattered century old sea charts from the fate of the trash became the catalyst for Moe's interest in merging map imagery with a painted plane. Working primarily in the ancient medium of encaustic on wood panel, her paintings feature multiple layers of tempered beeswax, oil pigment and collaged elements.
The medium of encaustic serves as a counterpoint to the fragility and impermanence of these map fragments, yet compliments their historical element."Salvaged chart fragments carrying the imprints of their histories are encapsulated in the surfaces of the paintings. Map symbols are repeated in the layers, some obscured, others exposed. Impressions echoing cartographic marks are pressed, incised and scraped into the luminous surfaces, much in the same way we leave our footprints on the landscape."