Katie Taylor - Creative life coach and contemporary artist.
- Isobel Arden
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
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Meet Katie Taylor.
In this interview, Mark invited Katie Taylor to create her own fantasy cultural year from the answers to some easy questions where there are no wrong answers. Enjoy her journey below.
Katie Taylor is a contemporary sculptural installation artist and creative life coach, based in Oxford, UK, whose work sits confidently at the intersection of materiality, memory and what it means to be human (and occasionally bewildered by it).
Holding a first-class degree in Textiles and currently completing a PhD at Oxford Brookes University, Katie’s practice explores our place in the world, the fragility of life, and the quiet but persistent traces we leave behind.
Katie’s artistic work is rooted in historical research and forensic anthropology, with a particular focus on identity and how individuality can be understood when a person is no longer present — or even named.
Her current PhD research examines the role of creative practice in acknowledging unidentified human remains, asking how clothing, objects, soil and materials can act as witnesses to a life lived. It’s serious subject matter, handled with sensitivity, curiosity and just enough levity to keep the existential dread at bay.
Working across sculpture, installation and mixed media, Katie Taylor creates immersive works that encourage reflection rather than instruction. Her installations explore how objects carry emotional and cultural memory, and how we commemorate the dead through the things they leave behind. Bioplastics, plant fibres and found materials are frequently employed, reinforcing the themes of impermanence and transformation that run through her work.
Alongside her artistic and academic practice, Katie is also a creative life coach, supporting artists, creatives and thinkers to navigate uncertainty, creative blocks and big life questions. Drawing on her research, studio practice and lived experience, her coaching offers a grounded, reflective space for people to reconnect with creativity, purpose and direction — without the motivational shouting.
Katie’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and she regularly speaks at academic, cultural and public events that bridge art, science and human experience. Whether through sculpture, research or coaching, her work is united by a simple premise: that creativity helps us understand ourselves, each other, and what remains when we’re gone.
Katie's Fantasy Cultural Year ... with a magic wand and time machine to hand.
Mark opens with a deceptively simple question: favourite building in the world. Katie lands on the Taj Mahal. Not just for the architecture, but for the story behind it – the romance, the symbolism, the emotional weight. It’s beautiful and meaningful.
We’re suddenly there. Early evening. A pop-up café by the river. The Taj Mahal in view.
On the table?
A pint of IPA, ideally something small-batch and a bit unusual.
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, a book Katie describes as genuinely life-changing and a constant through tough periods, including divorce.
Nick Cave in her headphones, because lyrics matter, and he’s one of the best to ever do it.
The Big Offer: Art as a Wellbeing Goldmine
Then comes the fantasy brief. A wealthy Indian family foundation has noticed Katie’s work and wants to fund a year-long, first-class global research journey. The mission?Create a global league table showing where art practice is genuinely recognised and used as a wellbeing tool – and where it isn’t.
There’s money. A book deal. A TED Talk. TV appearances. A lecture tour. A documentary crew.
Starting Close to Home (On Purpose)
Despite the unlimited budget, Katie chooses to start in the UK. She feels the US is already ahead in this space, and the UK still hasn’t quite cracked it – especially outside London.
She’s clear-eyed about funding cuts and the way creative practice is often dismissed as “just a nice extra”.
Her first stop? Barnsley. A deliberate choice to focus on places without easy access to London’s cultural infrastructure.
One Rule: One Music Genre for a Year
On the train north, the foundation sets a challenge: Katie can listen to only one genre of music for the entire year.
Her choice is instant: Post-punk. Noisy. Energising. Keeps her going.
Art, Dance, and Dinner in Barnsley
Barnsley welcomes her properly. Loft apartment. Young artists. An evening out.
For the performance, she conjures up flamenco – loud, dramatic, emotional, and intense. Exactly her thing.
Dinner afterwards? Lebanese sharing plates, eaten communally. (Possibly with a Barnsley chop thrown in for good measure.)
Taking the Research Global
Japan comes first – Tokyo, then out to the countryside. On arrival, it’s sports day, and she gets to choose what to watch.
Her pick: ice hockey, inspired by her son who plays. Fast, physical, and thrilling.
Next stop: Poland, landing in Warsaw.
Inside the Art Itself
In Warsaw, Mark imagines a digitally enhanced gallery where Katie can step inside an artist’s work using VR.
Her answer is immediate and deeply personal: Louise Bourgeois.
Katie talks about Bourgeois with real admiration – her power, her fearlessness, her refusal to soften with age. Bourgeois becomes more than an artist here; she’s a role model for how to grow older boldly and unapologetically.
A Week of Culture Back in London
Monday: Back in time to an early Sex Pistols gig – raw, chaotic, and full of energy.
Tuesday: Theatre, ideally Shakespeare as it was originally staged, not polished or polite.
Wednesday: Musicals (reluctantly). Annie gets a nostalgic pass, but only just.
Thursday: Opera… which Katie openly admits she knows nothing about and feels no pull towards.
Friday: Film night, choosing the original Swedish Let the Right One In – something dark, subtle, and emotionally sharp.
The Final Invitation: A Long Lunch
Before heading back out into the world, Mark offers one last fantasy: a long, leisurely lunch in London at a modern Lebanese restaurant.
Who’s across the table?
Katie chooses Louise Bourgeois again. Not because she’d be easy company – quite the opposite. Bourgeois was known for being blunt, challenging, even brutal. That’s exactly why Katie wants the conversation.
If Bourgeois brought a guest? Possibly Tracey Emin, given their late-life connection.
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Mark Walmsley FRSA FCIM AGSM
Chief Culture Vulture
Arts & Culture Network
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