Growing up in the small town of Craig, CO, Taylor Crisp developed a deep love for the landscapes of the Southwestern United States. She would spend countless hours wandering the sagebrush plains of Moffat County, or the history soaked San Juan Mountain Range hours away, imagining various western or fantasy stories that could take place in these far flung locales. This interest in storytelling took her to the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Film Production and a minor in Environmental Science in 2015. In her paintings she translates the visuals of her childhood. Inspired by the works of Maynard Dixon, she is driven to create paintings that capture the spirit of the Southwest she fell in love with as a child, with as little information as possible. Adhering to an aesthetic encapsulated by Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s assertion that “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”