Alison Elizabeth Taylor | Idylls

Idylls, a portfolio of three screenprints, is Alison Elizabeth Taylor's first collaborative project with Durham Press, featuring imagery first seen in the intricate wood veneer inlay pieces she is best known for. Realized as screenprints instead of inlay, the works focus less on surface and texture and more on the narrative quality of the environments and actions being depicted. The rich yet murky color palette reflects Taylor's highly composed and disquieting vignettes, drawing the viewer into each scene. References to mainstream American culture – large vehicles, sex, religion, hunting – become even more palpable in the graphic, unapologetic images Taylor has brought together for this portfolio.

Like the comics she created early in her career, the three prints in this portfolio – Panguitch Lake, The Brite Spot, and West Tropicana – offer a detailed and intimate look into Taylor's visual world as their smaller scale gives each scene the quality of an observed life rather than the magnified life often seen in her bigger works. "A large scale gives the image an epic quality," Taylor states, "while the small scale [of the prints] feels personal." This personal feel – both critical and compassionate – makes for an arresting series of prints and a unique snapshot of contemporary America.