Angie Taylor is a VR artist, sculptor, Animator & creative technologist. She has a mashup style – somewhere between naïve art, pop art & punk. Her work juxtaposes the DIY ethic of punk, the fresh immediacy of naïve art & complexity of VR & 3D technology.

She explores themes of isolation. Her work often champions the misfits of society & the geeks. Her illustrations have a 1980’s retro style. Influences: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Laurie Anderson, Yoko Ono, Jamie, Robert Crumb, Jacob Epstein, Linder Sterling.^[1][2]

Biography

Angie is one of the founding artists in the Crypto Art movement. She is a sculptor, animator, and educator. Working in VR, AR & the XR metaverse. Angie currently exhibits and sells her art, sculpture, and animation as NFTs on platforms such as SuperRare, KnownOrigin, Hicetnunc, Opensea, Dada.art, and Async.

Angie is a founding member of WOCA (Women of Cryptoart). In 2020 Angie organized & hosted the first-ever exhibition of women cryptoartists “She Art” at the London Gallery in Cryptovoxels.

Angie has had a long career in digital media arts since the 1980s. She was a demo artist with Adobe, delivering presentations at conferences and trade shows. She has several books published on digital media, art, and design.

Angie runs her own private art school Creative Cabin Ltd. She is also Linkedin Learning Instructor.

Angie recently completed an artists residency at Fusebox in Brighton where she created immersive art experiences.

Angie is a creative technologist with an interest in merging technologies such as #VR, #AR, and #Realtime3D. She is an expert in Tiltbrush and Masterpiece VR, Gravity Sketch, Unity, Unreal Engine, and Godot Engine.

Angie provides designers, artists, and animators with expert training and project mentoring. Specializing in Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Cinema 4D, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Adobe Character Animator.

Angie graduated with a degree in Sculpture, Drawing, and Humanities from Edinburgh College of Art in 1986. With an eclectic career that includes past stints as DJ, prop maker, and cartoonist, today, Angie continues to work on a diverse range of projects.

Past projects include animations and graphics for television and film. She created animations for BBC and Channel 4 kids TV in the UK.

Angie has produced and directed live events for artists including; Joan Armatrading, Woman of the Year Awards, and The Slits (Meltdown Festival).

Angie has also worked with award-winning directors of short films and music videos including; John Williams, Chris Cunningham, and musician, Beck.

Angie has written six books including; Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist and Creative After Effects. She has also illustrated several books and has provided graphic design and illustration for bands and companies including; The Well Oiled Sisters, Triple Tread, The Venus Overload, Dream Desciples, and Swelling Meg.

She is a big fan of naive art, rejecting conventional experience in representing real objects. Her digital sculptures deliberately display the polygons they are made from. The slightly wonky, broken appearance echoes her feelings about herself and her feelings of not fitting into society. Angie has ADHD and Aspergers. This means that her focus is intense but very short-lived.^[3][4]

"I wanted to find a way to sketch out 3D sculptures in a quick, expressive, organic way. It’s as if the idea needs to be expressed before I get sidetracked and the idea loses validity. Once the form is there, I can then focus on it for days so spend that time experimenting with lighting, textures and treatments. I used to spend time refining the form and shape. Till one day I realised that it’s roughness is what contains those feelings. Somehow by refining the form, they lose their power".^[5]

VR software provides her with a means of getting her ideas and feelings out quickly and powerfully. She then spends hours, and days, experimenting with different treatments, lighting, and rendering. Possibly due to her ADHD, her work is varied and doesn’t stay the same for long. It evolves quickly as she often adopts new techniques and styles at a whim.^[6][7]

Education

Edinburgh College Of Art

Angie Taylor has a BA Hons in Sculpture, Drawing, Humanities, and complimentary (September 1982 - June 1986), United Kingdom^[8]

Career

After graduating from art school in the 1980s, Angie became a motion graphic designer. She was a demo artist for Adobe in the 1990s, writing books and giving seminars on motion graphics and animation.

Angie has had a long and varied career. With stints as a deejay, prop-maker, motion graphic designer, and software demo artist she has a huge amount of experience in digital media. She was a pioneer of the digital motion graphics revolution in the late eighties and early nineties.

Angie now dedicates her time to creating her personal VR art and supports this by writing books and making video training regarding digital art, design, and animation.^[9]
[10]

Teaching

Angie teaches bespoke training courses at Creative Cabin Ltd. She also lectures at Brighton Art College and provides bespoke consultancy and training in Adobe After Effects and other creative software applications.

Recent clients include Skype, Bloomberg BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, Carlton, B Sky B & MTV.

Angie also worked for companies such as Adobe, Apple, and Microsoft as a demo artist and product specialist, regularly touring international conferences like NAB, IBC, Flash on the Beach, and Macworld.

The author of three successful books. The Creative After Effects books (version 5 and 7), published by Focal Press, and a third book, Design Essentials for the motion media artist which is also published by Focal Press.^[13][14]

Works

Hibernation – John Williams

Visual Effects on the multi-award-winning short film Hibernation, directed by John Williams, who was the recipient of two awards for excellence in advertising at Cannes. See Hibernation from John Williamson Vimeo.

Beck – Guero

She has also designed animations with UK-based design house, D-Fuse for a groundbreaking DVD album for the US musician, Beck. Angie collaborated with D-Fuse on a series of animations for a game, and for the groundbreaking DVD album, "Guero".

Chris Cunningham/Aphex Twin

Angie worked with Chris Cunningham and warp Records on "Rubber Johnny" a collaboration with Aphex Twin. She worked as an animation assistant, creating morphing animations with Revision Reflex.

CryptoArtBegins Collaboration

Angie Taylor is one of 50 artists featured in “CRYPTO ART – Begins,” the first NFT book to chronicle the history and evolution of Crypto Art. “CRYPTO ART – Begins” chronicles the exciting beginnings and evolution of Crypto Art through the story and work of 50 of the world’s top artists who contributed to its birth and are still an active part of its present and future revolution with their NFT projects.

Angie Taylor uses her artistic skills as a sculptor and 3D animator to shape digital sculptures that come to life in the Crypto Art universe. Her works offer a glimpse into the inner spectrum of the artist, managing to tell the experience of those who do not feel they belong to anything, with an irreverently Punk taste. ^[19]

Angie's NFT works

Iwazaru:

Iwazaru is different from her friends. She feels the senses of isolation, fear, confusion & frustration with other people. It's a continuous struggle not to vocalize her incredulity at the stupidity & shortsightedness of her fellow beings. Sometimes she wonders if it's a form of repressed Tourettes Syndrome or if she’s just a bad person who doesn’t deserve a voice.

In Japanese legend, the Sanshi are the Three Corpses or worms, living inside everyone’s body. The Sanshi keep track of the good deeds and particularly the bad deeds of the person they inhabit. They report these deeds to the god, Ten-Tei. The three wise monkeys caused the Sanshi and, ultimately, the god, Ten-Tei not to see, say or hear the bad deeds of a person. Protecting them from judgment or persecution.

This partially ties into modern psychology which talks of the vulnerable child, the nurturing parent, and the critical adult inside each personality. The idea of there being multiple facets to one's personality fascinates me. We are not just driven by one inevitable force. We have options if we tune into the different voices in our heads.

The three monkeys proverb is sometimes used to refer to a lack of moral responsibility on the part of people who refuse to acknowledge impropriety, looking the other way or feigning ignorance. Perhaps a result of not being in touch with their more kind, empathetic inner voices?

Personally, I struggle daily with feeling different from the majority of the human population. I have Aspergers so it often feels like I’m from a different planet. Other people frustrate me and confuse me. I have thoughts going through my head of what I’d like to say to them instinctively. But most of the time I stop myself.

The NFT and the Fury:

This piece is in reaction to the negative reaction to the popularity of Cryptoart. A similar phenomenon happened during the punk movement in the 1970s where musicians attacked punks for being amateurish and ruining music. This piece refers back to the punk past and looks forward to a future where crypto artists are able to create art without fear of being bullied.

This NFT is for sale on OpenSea.

Kikazaru:

In Japanese legend, the Sanshi are the Three Corpses or worms, living inside everyone’s body. The Sanshi keep track of the good deeds and particularly the bad deeds of the person they inhabit. They report these deeds to the god, Ten-Tei. The three wise monkeys caused the Sanshi and, ultimately, the god, Ten-Tei not to see, say or hear the bad deeds of a person. Protecting them from judgment or persecution.

When I was a child I had imaginary friends who I thought provided good thoughts and bad thoughts to me. I was the third, neutral person who could be influenced either way. In a way, my imaginary friends operated like the three monkeys – giving me an excuse for bad behavior. I also experienced name-calling and bullying from children and teachers at school. The idea of being able to choose not to listen to those cruel and damaging voices is encouraging. That we have a choice to allow our protective inner voices to be louder and more powerful.

This partially ties into modern psychology which talks of the vulnerable child, the nurturing parent, and the critical adult inside each personality. The idea of there being multiple facets to one's personality fascinates me. We are not just driven by one inevitable force. We have options if we tune into the different voices in our heads.

The three monkeys proverb is sometimes used to refer to a lack of moral responsibility on the part of people who refuse to acknowledge impropriety, looking the other way or feigning ignorance. Perhaps a result of not being in touch with their more kind, empathetic inner voices?

You What? You What?

Tribal-punk figure is animated to demonstrate the frustration of the millennial age. Feelings of anger make us want to protest but the lack of solidarity and energy forces us to retreat. Creating a constant loop of despair.

Minted on May 28th, 2020, You what? You what? is Angie Taylor’s first NFT on SuperRare. Her first token accurately captures her style very well, and for digital art collectors looking to acquire an Angie Taylor piece, this is a good one to pay attention to given that it’s her first.^[17]

Metal Mermaid

Animated VR metal sculpture of a Mermaid. Created in Gravity Sketch, textured, lit, and animated in Cinema 4D and Blender. Watch you don’t cut your hands on this one! She is angry at the world and will likely bite your hand off if you’re not careful.

Metal Mermaid was minted on August 19th, 2020. You can interact with this 3d model by clicking and moving your mouse around. Metal Mermaid is an interesting opportunity for digital art collectors because while many NFTs have motion elements and sound, there are few that you can interact with at this level, also check out The Day The World Turned Dayglo. We also see this model used in Song of the Siren.

Song Of The Siren

Inspired by Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren”. Mermaids were often thought of as benevolent, whimsical creatures. But legend has it that they lured sailors to their deaths with haunting songs and unrequited love. This mermaid is full of attitude that is both powerful and intriguing.

Song of the Siren was minted on August 17th, 2020, and featured a seriously badass mermaid using the same 3d model from Metal Mermaid.

CryPtoFaMily

A tribute to all the artists in the crypto family who have influenced me and my work. You know who you are! Punk rock sculpture meets crypto art influences head-on. Look and you will find your influence hidden deeply.

CryPtoFaMily was minted on September 30th, 2020, and presents a unique opportunity for digital art collectors looking to acquire an Angie Taylor piece as it’s the only one that explicitly calls out crypto, and it seems to represent a moment in the artist’s life.^[18]