Taffie Cragon Garsee has a day job at “a medical facility” in Shreveport, but that is something entirely different than what you’ll find at her Web site www.tgarsee.net or her Facebook page, “The Art of Taffie Garsee.”

The overly-simplified humble statement, “This is what I do when I’m not at work” is accompanied by fantastical images of bugs, bees, flora and fauna done in India ink, acrylic and varnish on paper.

The images have a rather Bill Joyce quality to them (if Bill Joyce did 19th century engravings). In fact, some of them look like they’ve come straight out of a 19th century museum of natural history. Her “Blue Heron” and “Brown Pelican” prints have all the rich color and character of Audubon prints. Garsee’s magic lives in her interpretation of the world around her played out on canvas.

“I like to use bugs and flowers to express human conditions,” Garsee said. “Bugs are often overlooked in day-to-day life, and I like to put them in human situations. It allows for new perspective. This ugly little funky bug lets us see situations through the eyes of a sexless, genderless, faceless perspective.”

Garsee is primarily self-taught, saying she works from instinct, although she has been drawing since she was a little girl. “I used to sit and draw with my dad at the kitchenette,” she said. “I did take art classes in middle and high school. I took architecture classes in high school and one semester of art history at LSUS. I wasn’t ready to commit then. I didn’t have focus and drive.”

“After I had my daughter Phoebe, I learned a lot about focus,” Garsee said. “When Phoebe got old enough to go to school, I took a job at a fabric store and took her to work with me. I made custom throws and pillows for people. It wasn’t until I got divorced and starting working at the clinic that I began to spend time on my art. I had started dating Keith [now her husband], and he saw some of my drawings. He encouraged me and said, ‘You should be doing this more.’ I’m much happier when I’m drawing.”

When asked at what point she started making money from her art, she quickly replied, “I’m still not sure I can make money at it. I have a hard time getting excited about the business end of it. It takes so much time, and it’s so absorbing. I literally sit on the same spot on the couch all day painting.”

Garsee has already had her work shown at juried shows, at festivals and at galleries, including the Facial Hair and Moustache Show, a solo show at Magale Hall at Centenary College, the Red River Revel, Texas Avenue Maker’s Fair, artspace and more. More recently, she won Best in Show at “Critical Mass II” in 2014 and was rewarded with her own solo show at artspace called “Dystopian Garden.”

Garsee loves showing her work at the Red River Revel each year. “It’s fun. You go sit in the sunshine most days and sit there and paint. People talk to you, and you eat boudin balls and Humphrey Yogarts all day. It’s hard work, but it’s all that, too.”

That candid, laid-back spirit is what people love about Garsee, although she can be pretty hard on herself. “I tend to speak before thinking,” she said. “But painting forces me to think things out. I speak slang with my friends, and I’m often snarky and sarcastic. But when I paint, I take time to make sure my work is as perfect as it can be. I give it a tone and refine the message. Painting is my voice.”

That spirit led her to create “The Iris 16 x 20 Individual Interpretation Art Show.”

“A couple of months ago, I asked a few artist friends to paint with me,” Garsee said.

The invitation was simple: “No prizes, no grant money, no competition, no forms to fill out. Just use this photo as a reference for a 16 x 20 interpretation of it, in a style that represents you and your work. Medium is up to you, as long as it’s 16 x 20 inches.

The inspiration picture is a close-up of an Iris flower in rich purple and white shades.

“We had around 50 people agree to participate and turn in pictures of their versions of the iris,” Garsee said. “Katy Larsen at The Agora Borealis quickly stepped up to offer her shop as a location to show the finished works, to let us hang our work together, and meet and mingle. A date was set for June 18.”

“The one rule, the 16 x 20 size, was because I wanted to put them really close together in one group, like a quilt. It’s kind of like when people would use the fabric on hand to make a quilt square and piece it together into an entire quilt.”

“I was surpised at the different ways people went with it,” she said.

“In typical fashion, I went straight for it, flaws and all, and added in bugs and clover. There were several that I was super-impressed with. Some went as far as to turn into other things. Ben Moss’s was almost catlike. Billie Brown’s ended up looking like Prince’s face. Hillary Frazier’s was phenomenal. It was like women done in the Art Deco or Art Nouveau style. Julie Glass did hers as a sculpture with rebar and fabric and epoxy and acrylic paint. Not everybody stayed within the rules, and that was fine. Daniel Cordelle burned one on wood. There’s one 3-D printer version by Mark Holstrom. John Perkins did a digitally altered photograph where he imposed animals’ faces into the photo. It’s trippy. The more you look the more you find.”

Garsee has invested plenty of resources into building a stunning website to showcase her own work. “That is important,” she said. “But there is nothing like walking into a gallery and seeing art up close. It’s another thing to walk in and talk to somebody about their art.”

“Some people are born with a propensity toward art, and some people spend a lot of time honing their talent,” Garsee said. “But I believe a lot of it is God-given. God has given everybody something that they can get joy from. You may connect with nature and find your joy in a boat on the water fishing. Art is where I find that solace. Everybody’s got something in themselves that they can lean on.”

You can see images of Garsee’s work at www.tgarsee.net, and soon at www.tgarsee. com, or at The Agora Borealis or artspace in downtown Shreveport.

– Susan Reeks