The Mystical Symbolism in a Gage Taylor And Uriél Dana Oil Painting

Professional Fine Artist, Curator. Writer & Contributing Editor on Art, Culture, Tantric Buddhism. Former Arts Ambassador, US State Dept.

Feb 5, 2016

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Hindsight, Oil on Canvas, 1988, by Uriél Dana & Gage Taylor (died 2000).

Gage Taylor and I rarely painted large oils. Hindsight is one of the three largest. Painted on multiple sanded coats of gesso on a surface as smooth as skin and in layers of oil glazes that create a multidimensional depth. This painting embodies every universal archetype from the East, the West, and the Middle East found in a Taylor Dana painting.

Many cultures around the world use the temple as a symbol for the body, either literally, like the great cathedrals of Europe, or metaphorically, as in the chakra system. The body or temple represented a portal to our soul in a Taylor-Dana oil.

Each of us is a temple of treasure, and as we explore that treasure, we often discover jewels within ourselves we may not be aware of. (The hidden treasure in the background).

We used carpets as the symbol for the secret doctrines, inspired by the flying carpet legends, which evolved from the use of prayer rugs.

Cats, large and small, were used in temples all around the world because of their ability to sense the non physical as well as the physical. Cheetah’s were a favorite of ours because they are the most telepathic and dog like of the feline kingdom. Joy Adamson (author of the well known book and movie, Born Free), kept and studied Cheetahs for years and revealed their astonishing personalities in a book called, The Spotted Sphinx. We embraced their character often as a symbol of the higher self.

You can see more of my artwork here.

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Uriél Danā at the Getty Museum — At the Getty Museum

Uriél Danā has been honored for her work as a fine artist, writer, and lecturer for more than four decades. Her oils, gouache, and lost wax bronze work have been shown in 12 countries on 4 continents. She is a former U.S. State Department Ambassador to the Arts under the Arts America Program.

Her oil paintings and drawings are included in dozens of private, corporate, and celebrity art collections. In October 2015 two of her paintings were selected for the Carousel de Louvre exhibition in Paris, and she was included in the catalogue Modern Art Masters in Complex Musée du Louvre. Her work was included in the landmark exhibit “The Otherworld” (link) featuring the history of Visionary Art. The exhibit spanned 2021-2022 at the Roland Gallery in Los Angeles’ California Lutheran College. From 2022 to 2023 one of her drawings was featured in the Small Works exhibit at the MEAM (European Museum of Modern Art) in Barcelona, Spain.

After serving in the United States Air Force, Uriél attended Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design in San Francisco, studied Sculpture, Museum Management, & Art History at College of Marin, Kentfield, and apprenticed 4 yrs with California Surrealist Master Painter, Gage Taylor in Marin. In addition to her own art career, she was known for her painting collaborations with the late Gage Taylor under the name Taylor-Dana.

Uriél curates two fine art streams on BlueSky: of Contemporary Figurative Artists and Japanese Woodblock Prints.

The Mystical Symbolism in a Gage Taylor And Uriél Dana Oil Painting

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