Taking flight, Michele Taylor leaves an eternal legacy of beauty, love and splendor, art and eloquence
By Suzie Harrison
Michele Taylor was much like the painted lady butterflies that migrated through Laguna Beach on Tuesday, March 12, the day she passed. Aptly, millions of colorful butterflies mesmerized the skies, much like Michele did in life.
Like these special butterflies, she was strong, and able to go the distance with courage, determination, and elegance – nothing could get in her way. She traveled this life with grace and beauty, bringing into the world a legacy of love in everything she did.
Michele had an ability to profoundly touch each person to their core, ignite passions to dream big, and believe that all things are possible.
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Courtesy of Michele Taylor
Michele on her birthday on January 25, 2017 at the Aquarium of the Pacific
Michele never said I can’t. Instead she lived with a passionate pursuit of loving life, art, friends, family, nature, animals, and spirituality. She stood for what she believed in and was true to her loving spirit and core.
Michele lived her life with incredible depth and meaning, much like the life she breathed into her art.
What she so prophetically said about her first public art piece, Laguna Tortoise, was actually a true reflection of herself.
“It is my hope that the tortoise will inspire viewers to maintain focus, humility and perseverance regardless of the perceived impossibility of a situation,” Taylor said.
Michele had an awareness and higher purpose on this earth, transforming the lives of all she touched. It’s my belief she took flight with an even greater purpose to fulfill. Her beauty and legacy of love will remain eternal…love never ends…it has no boundaries.
Michele’s mother, Barbara Taylor, talked about Michele’s affinity for butterflies and special gift of making the world a more beautiful place.
The day Michele passed the millions of butterflies came through Laguna Beach. She always loved butterflies and her gardens were always so beautiful. You’d walk though, with her pond, the koi fish, and the beautiful glass pieces in it. It was just stunning.
She’d find larva on the milkweed, saving them from the birds. She would go put them into a large screen cage and waited for them to become the chrysalis. And then one day, we watched the butterfly open its wings slowly, the transformation bringing us to tears. And she said, “Now you see mom, this is why I rescue the larva.”
She did with many butterflies like that and they all lived. When she would go out in the yard they were always just flying in her hair. And she said with a smile, “Yes, they’re always in my hair.”
Maybe they came back to see her. Most people knew she loved butterflies, but not very many people knew she raised them. It was so beautiful. Whenever she set them free, she was always so happy to set them free. She loved them.
Siân Poeschl, Cultural Arts Manager and close friend of Michele’s, poignantly spoke about her iconic public art works.
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Courtesy of Sian Poeschl
Michele talking with Art Commissioners and art enthusiasts about, perhaps Laguna’s most iconic art piece, “Laguna Tortoise”
Michele was able to translate her work from a personal realm to the public with a number of iconic installations. Her works were always thoughtful, meaningful, and delicate of spirit, fanciful of imagination and caring in her interpretations.
Aesop’s fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, was inspiration for Michele’s first City installation at Bluebird Park. The moral of the story can be interpreted as perseverance prevailing or taking on a bully. The tactile experience for children feeling its glass eyes is as affectionate as Michele was as a person. Every child who has looked into those eyes is taken on a journey of the imagination and the thrill to be with the tortoise on its winning steps across the finish line.
Her collaboration with artist Gerard Stripling won them both an award as artists of the year betrothed by the Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts. It was a unique partnership of materials and aesthetics, both better artists for the experience. “Eternal Legacy,” a memorial for fallen Police Officers Gordon French and Jon Coutchie, is a complex and multileveled experience of materials, textures, and emotions.
The main sculpture of bronze and glass embraces those lost and those who have lost. Written into the sculpture, the words “You will never reach your dreams without honoring others along the way” and “It is easy to be brave from a distance” speak universally to our understanding of the human spirit.
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Corutesy of Sian Poeschl
Michele and Gerard won Artists of the Year for the piece “Eternal Legacy,” a gorgeous sculpture, in the works, in dedication of the lives of fallen LBPD officers
“Moving Forward” was designed for the Community and Susi Q Center with shoes representing all walks of life, neatly paired below the stone seat. One pair of shoes are Michele’s fathers, forever frozen in time in bronze. Every piece created by those artist hands have revealed the love, passion, humanity, and compassion Michele shared with our community.
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Courtesy of Mike Tauber
Michele loved creating beautiful pieces big and small
We have lost a loving spirit, who touched all she came to know, partnered in her work with some greats, and left behind a legacy one can only dream of. We are left wondering what more she could have achieved, but forever grateful for what she left behind.
Michele inspired me, she showed me friendship and mostly she exhibited perseverance in the face of any adversity to seduce and mesmerize the imagination.
Michele’s mother continued generously sharing loving memories of her beloved daughter:
Michele was born on January 25, 1970, at 3:33 p.m. in the afternoon, on a Sunday in San Diego. She grew up in La Jolla and Encinitas, both known for their beautiful beaches and art.
When she was a child, she was very, very creative from the beginning. She was into art right away. She was always very artistic, whether she was making an hors d’oeuvres tray or arranging flowers. When she was just 6 and 7 years old, I would do a flower arrangement and she would come and make it even better. She’d say mommy do you want me to do this and she’d make it so beautiful. Ever since she was a young girl, as long as I can remember.
Her maternal grandfather and grandmother who were both artists in their own righ loved to create and to share their crafts with Michele.
We always thought she was artistic and when she went up to school at Berkeley she just flowered. She did all kinds of beautiful costumes for different dances. She loved costume design. She majored in Art with a secondary in Women’s Studies, of course.
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Courtesy of Sian Poeschl
Creating beautiful works at Artist Open Studios
Michele had an amazing love of animals. Before she could talk, she was holding all her puppies, carrying them around. From when she was two, she collected all kinds of animals and brought them home.
When we lived in La Jolla, we were at the beach all the time. Her friends and she would go down. We had a little VW convertible. We’d each grab our beach chairs, throw them in the back, and go lay in the sun. We did that all the time. It was her favorite thing, go to the beach. She loved the water. We’d come home with little shells and all kinds of things and she’d make the most beautiful pieces.
She always had style. Her own style, really. Whatever she liked she wore. She put it on and she didn’t care what anyone else wore.
Being an only child we would go to dinner and she would sit there like a grown-up. Just the most beautiful manners. She was always a very mature kid.
She was a wonderful entertainer, cook, and always a gracious host. She had the most sincere generosity of spirit. But she wouldn’t put up with any BS.
She was always sensitive to anyone’s heart, no matter who it was. She was always a warm person, very sensitive, and somewhat of a counselor. She was always so kind and objective, but also gave strong giving.
Michele was always very strong, especially for others in need. She would just get right in there. As far as people approaching her, she was just always beautifully generous and made everyone feel comfortable. She always stayed back to help the one left behind and brought them up to where they wanted to be. She faced everything head on.
She wanted to make everything beautiful, every place, whatever it was.
She was really a force. As tender and generous and everything she was, she was also a force. And everyone says that about her strength. They’ve never seen such a strong and determined woman.
She could do eight projects at a time get them all done and serve dinner with her glass slippers on.
Collaborating artist and friend Gerard Basil Stripling shared:
“Michele was an amazing artist and great friend. Her kindness and spirit will be deeply missed. When we collaborated, we always knew that we would be able to come up with something so much better than we could alone. The process and journey sharing our creativity with the community has been extremely fulfilling for both of us. It’s nice to know that she has left a legacy of work that we will be able to enjoy it for years to come.”
Artist Mike Tauber and Michele, who were close friends, also worked together on paint and ceramic tile murals, sculptures, and reliefs starting in 2003. Their most visible piece is the Canyon Preserve landscape mural, fronting the Laguna Beach County Water District building, at Loma Place.
Mike said, “Michele was great to work with and always made it fun. She named our collaboration ‘TNT; and would say, ‘Our art is explosive,’ and bust out laughing. She knew no obstacle and would fearlessly jump on a scissor-lift and push it to 30 feet in the air. She was a technical genius, obsessed with crystalline ceramic glazes, and loved making test strips in each and every color of the rainbow.
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Courtesy of LBCWD
Working, working, working, in her studio, what Michele loved to do
“We were super detailed in planning our mural for the water district. We’d sit at the Cedar Creek Inn and stare at the wall. She said, ‘Let’s make this really great – we will have to still like it when we’re in our 90s and passing by in our wheelchairs.’
“I guess that day will come - but in spirit form. Collectors are lucky to have Michele’s work, we’re all lucky to have her public art, and I am lucky to call her a great collaborator and friend.”
Christopher Regan, Laguna Beach County Water District Assistant General Manager, said, “The District was saddened to hear of the passing of our dear friend Michele Taylor. Taylor will be forever linked to the District’s history as the artist of the mural ‘Canyon Preserve,’ located on the north facing exterior wall of the District’s headquarters.
“Commissioned in 2006, Taylor’s tile mural refers to Laguna Canyon, which reflects the Districts past, as the canyon was important both as an access route.
and as a source of water for early Laguna Beach residents.”
The image is a timeless view of a creek among sycamore trees and distant foothills. “We are so fortunate to have such a significant piece of Michele’s work as a permanent part of our historic headquarters,” said Renae Hinchey, Laguna Beach Water District General Manager. “Like Michele, the mural reminds us of the enduring beauty that is Laguna.”
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Courtesy of Michele Taylor
Michele visiting her favorite place in Spain, October 6, 2017
Longtime close friend and neighbor Becky Barber shared, “I just felt like whenever we’re together we’re magic. Magic like we could do anything. It was just fun and in the good times and the hard times we came together. You know, she was just special to everybody. When you were with her, she made you feel like a special person. It takes a wonderful person to do that and make every individual feel so, so good. I don’t know…I’m going to miss my friend. I just really going to really miss my dear, dear friend. There’s just too much to say.”
Gregory Lincoln, Sawdust artist and close friend who had a booth near Michele a couple of years during the time she showed at the Sawdust (2003 to 2014), said:
“I met Michele in 2007. She was really kind, giving, forgiving, and generous. She had a wonderful, giving, outreaching spirit. She was a real brilliant artist, the most original and imaginative artist that I’ve ever known. Mainly because she was Michele Taylor. She didn’t follow anybody and she thought fearlessly for herself.
“I’ve never known anybody like her before. You couldn’t help but be affected by Michele in a positive way. Once you met her and spent time with her you knew you were with someone really special. She would always give, give, give you her time.
“There wasn’t anybody who if she thought they needed help or needed encouragement, she wouldn’t be there for. She would go out of her way to do that for someone.”
Friend, former Sawdust artist, roommate, and teaching collaborator Joan Corman and her daughter Jessica Bloch have many fond memories of Michele.
“If there’s one thing I know for certain about Michelle, it’s that she lived with every cell in her body. Using her vibrant energy, she spent her lifetime creating. Many people will remember her for her impressively beautiful pieces of art around Laguna, her tangible creations, but what I will remember her for is her creation of love. Her love for her family, friends, Laguna, and the ocean.
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Courtesy of Barbara Taylor
A precious memory of Michele celebrating out with her mother
“Michelle’s life was cut short, this we all know, but we must also know how fully she lived. How fully she loved. We will miss you always...and think of you fondly while we dance around your tortoise at Music in the Park; when we lay our eyes on one of the many pieces of your art that we are lucky enough to have adorning our homes, and we will always think of her every time we swim at Diver’s Cove.
“Until we meet again...”
Michele’s best friend Tracy Baker, a longtime friend from her Berkeley days, and dear friend Danny Satterlee, were always there for Michele and by her side. They’ve been integral to Michele and her life and were like family.
Michele is survived by her mother, Barbara, three uncles, her 100-year-old maternal grandmother, Bunny, and 94-year-old paternal grandfather, her sister Holly and brother Wade from her father, and 18 close cousins.
A celebration of Michele’s life will be held at the Sawdust Art Festival, 935 Laguna Canyon Rd, on Saturday, March 30, at 1 p.m. Loved ones, friends, and community members are welcome to attend and share the love, light, and stories of our dearest Michele. She will forever remain in our hearts.
