From 1984 to 1995 Taylor worked as a psychiatric technician on the night shift at the now-shuttered Camarillo State Mental Hospital, where he cared for adults living with developmental disabilities or mental illness as well as those seeking treatment for substance use disorders. The pencil sketches he made of patients with whom he had close, sustained relationships are among his earliest works. Known as the “Camarillo Drawings,” many include quotes from the sitters or Taylor’s own stream-of-conscious notes. The empathetic observation of physical and psychological states that Taylor developed at Camarillo would become a hallmark of his portrait drawings and paintings.
By day, Taylor studied at Oxnard Community College (1985–90) and the California Institute of the Arts (1990–95). The paintings he made during this period merge his sensitivity to emotions with bold color and the graphic vocabulary of popular culture.
