Ceramics / Illustration

Allyson Mellberg Taylor’s Alluringly Grotesque Portraits on Ceramics

Allyson Mellberg Taylor

I’ve been a fan of Allyson Mell­berg Tay­lor’s draw­ings for sev­er­al years now, but only recent­ly real­ized that she cre­ates illus­tra­tive ceram­ics, too! Her slight­ly grotesque por­traits have made their way onto vin­tage din­ner plates where the sub­jects have pim­ples, two heads, and talk in leaves.

I can’t help but be remind­ed of the graph­ic nov­el Black Hole by Charles Burns when I look at Allyson’s work. If you aren’t famil­iar with that sto­ry, it’s about teenagers in the 1970’s who con­tract STDs and devel­op out­landish things such as tails and weird growths. Like these plates, the com­ic is slight­ly unnerv­ing but unde­ni­ably alluring.

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