Meet Taylor Fair of Edgehill

Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Fair.

Taylor, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Although I was born in Franklin, I don’t dare call myself a local. My family moved to Los Angeles when I was just about 2 years old. When I first moved (back) to Nashville in 2020, I didn’t tell people I was from LA unless I had to. At the time, telling people you were from California was not exactly a way to win friends. Having grown into myself a bit more, I wear it like a badge of honor.

I owe so much of who I am to Los Angeles. I truly am a constellation of all the people and places I have loved. Two of the brighter stars in my cosmos are my parents. I was raised by a father that chases his dreams as a day job and a mom who takes the limit of 24 hours as a dare to live every day to the fullest. That is to say, he is an actor and she is a working mom. My dad instilled in me an eye for style and maybe a penchant for the dramatic while my mom instilled in me a love for experiences and possibly a tendency to cram too much into one day.

I don’t want to overly romanticize growing up in LA. I love my hometown, but it was really hard to be a child there. The city is sprawling, the traffic is awful, and I was the only kid in the apartment building I grew up in. Comparing my experience to friends who grew up in the suburbs, I had a very solitary childhood. With few peers nearby, I turned inward and immersed myself in the arts. Creativity became the way I processed the world and understood myself.

My mom says I was always creatively gifted. If you ask when it started she would probably bring up my drawings. Supposedly, I was drawing recognizable figures at 2 years old, though we can’t go on record that I was a prodigy since dad threw them away. (Trust me, don’t bring it up.) Naturally gifted or not, I had the distinct privilege of being encouraged to pursue a career in the arts. I was raised at least in part on film and TV sets, surrounded by family and friends in creative careers, and given the opportunity to explore my own creativity.

After a stint as a child actor, I spent most of my adolescence following my passion for singing and songwriting, which eventually led to a Bachelor of Arts in Music. After college, I transitioned into visual arts, developing skills in photography, graphic design, and branding. It’s ironic, but I actually moved to Nashville after deciding to step away from music. Most people have to deal with their grandparents being disappointed that they didn’t become a doctor. My grandmother is still waiting for me to go back to singing.

I’m coming up on 5 years as a full-time freelancer. I specialize in visual storytelling and user-centered design. I’ve helped clients develop clear, cohesive brand identities and visual systems that align with their mission. This includes everything from web and graphic design to photography and content production. I am proud of the work I’ve done as a solopreneur, but the most meaningful work I’ve done is with my business partner, Hannah Kik.

Hannah and I sat next to each other in a coffee shop a few years ago and I struck up a conversation. Nothing really came of that connection until a handful months later when she posted on her Instagram story about an open call, prompt-based art exhibit she was putting on. I entered The DOPAMINE Exhibit as an artist and closed it as a co-founder. A lot of nights spent at her kitchen table transformed into a one-night showing of 36 artists’ work to over 350 people. Looking back, it’s hard to believe Hannah and I ever weren’t working together. She has become such a fixture in my life, both personally and professionally. I wouldn’t be who I am today without having met her.

This year, we officially launched MADE Foundation as a nonprofit organization dedicated to putting on more events like DOPAMINE. At the core of our mission, MADE is about making art accessible both to artists and audiences. Each of our exhibits begins with an open call, one shared concept, and a deadline to create a piece. We firmly believe that every person is creative and deserves a platform to share their work with their community. To be able to come together with a group of volunteers and creatives and produce an event that amplifies local art is truly one of the great honors of my life. It is also one way I invite the lonely little girl who turned inward and immersed herself in the arts into my day-to-day life.

I have this deep seated desire to have an easy answer for what I do or who I am. Something simple, pretty, and clean cut, but that’s just not my truth. I contain multitudes. I am the co-founder of an art nonprofit, a freelance designer, a model, a poet, a performer, a photographer, and I hope to be a great deal many more things before my time is up.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
To be perfectly honest, I don’t even know if there was always a road. I have a poetry teacher who says all artists need the “magic dark”. A transformative space where you have no concept of where you are or where you’re going and all you can do is be present. I definitely feel like that is true to my experience. As is the rollercoaster of the creative process. As a creative person, the process follows you around everywhere including when you are building a life. There’s a post that I came across several years ago that reads:

“The Creative Process:
1. This is awesome
2. This is tricky
3. This sucks
4. I suck
5. This might be OK
6. This is awesome”

There have been plenty of false starts, mistakes, and unfortunate circumstances I’ve encountered, but I really think the biggest struggle I have dealt with is gaining the courage to be honest with myself and what I want out of my life.

For a while, I was working with just about any client that would take me, jumping into employee-level commitments with 1099 tax forms. I was constantly (putting myself) in scenarios where I felt like I had to prove my value, both to myself and clients. I tried every free masterclass I could get into, hoping that I could gain enough skill or learn some secret productivity tip or client funnel system that would fix all my problems, but none of it changed the fact that I was feeling unfulfilled.

In theory, I wanted to figure out how to make my job work for me, not work for my job. In actuality, there was no amount of professional self-help that was going to change the fact that I never showed up as myself. I was creating the version of myself I thought would be the most acceptable to clients, friends, and anyone else I encountered. Obviously, it was exhausting and frustrating. It left me feeling incredibly alone as well. When you aren’t letting yourself be seen, you are also robbing yourself of meaningful relationships, personally and professionally.

I told myself I was joining the illustrious ranks of all great solopreneurs that hated their life a little in the interest of the big picture. I now know that there is in fact a difference between being a little lost in the woods but still on the path and frantically hacking your way through a forest you don’t even want to be in.

I don’t think I have it totally figured out, but I can’t live or tell my truth if I don’t seek it out within myself first. It’s a daily struggle after a lifetime of trying to be the “best” version of myself to just be /this/ version of myself, but I’m learning how to show up as a work in progress and know that there is no great arrival but a constant discovery.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
While freelancing still pays my bills, what Hannah and I do with MADE is definitely the work I am most proud of. MADE is a 100% volunteer-based nonprofit arts organization dedicated to building a platform where artists of all disciplines and skill levels can create and share their work with their community, free from algorithms, gatekeeping, and commercial pressure.

Our social handle and website are ‘madeforconcept’. This came from conversations Hannah and I had during DOPAMINE exploring what it means to create for concept, not for capital. As freelancers, Hannah and I often utilize our creative skills to work with brands, companies, or individuals who are trying to sell something. There is nothing inherently wrong with that; Hannah and I are so incredibly lucky to be able to support ourselves in creative careers. The reality is that when creative work is made for capital, it does become constrained by what sells, what gets likes, or what algorithms reward. It can be easy to fall into the trap of always creating for market viability instead of authentic expression.

As creatives, it is so incredibly important to set aside some amount of time and energy to create for concept. Creating for the sake of an idea or exploration allows art to become more honest and builds a bridge between an artist’s inner world and the community’s shared experience. By creating a space for art for art’s sake, we allow our artists to take risks, experiment with new mediums, and create work that might never find a traditional commercial home but speaks to something deeper and more meaningful.

What we’re doing is experimental and challenges a lot of preconceived notions about art. Every MADE exhibit starts with an open call. Those who sign up receive a shared prompt with resources from businesses in our support network, whether it be discounted studio time or materials to help alleviate the financial burden of creating. We give the artists a short but intentional timeframe to complete their pieces and then we bring everyone together for a public exhibition. We don’t curate or set specific requirements to participate. If an artist creates something and submits it by the deadline, their work is included.

What I’m most proud of is that we’ve built something that honors the creativity in everyone, from the people making art in a studio to those creating on their kitchen table. We’ve created space for the painter with a day job, the poet who never shares her drafts, the burned-out freelancer who wants to remember why they started. When you honor the creativity in everyone and give them a platform to be seen, it transforms not just individual artists but the entire fabric of the community.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I don’t really know that I’d call it “luck” because the journey I’ve been on both individually and as a part of MADE has felt so orchestrated and purposeful that I simply can’t attribute it to random chance.

I was born into a family of performers and creatives. I was encouraged to pursue things so many people never feel safe enough to dream of. I don’t know why I was given that support system while others have to fight tooth and nail for their art, but I have a hunch it was leading me to pay it forward to other artists I come across.

Hannah and I could have easily never met. We are from opposite sides of the country, and run in very different circles. We could call it luck that we sat next to each other in that coffee shop, but I think there was definitely something more purposeful at play.

Furthermore, there is absolutely no reason Hannah and I should have been able to put on The DOPAMINE Exhibit and see the success we did. We had no budget, a completely unpaid marketing campaign, and limited experience with gallery exhibitions. Yet, we saw over 350 people attend and raised over $3500 for our fiscal sponsor, Nashville Angels, in just one night. Now with MADE, it has become so much bigger than us and we’re so grateful. It’s not just “our” nonprofit, it is a community and we’re so honored to be a part of it.

On the other side of the coin, I have lost out on so many jobs and taken some that were not meant for me. I started driving for Uber to make ends meet and then my car broke down. Hannah and I had to decide to let go of a business we started together before we started MADE. The list goes on. But without those “bad” experiences I would never have found the good I now have in my life. I’m learning to spend less time and energy labeling my experience of “luck” as good or bad, and more time being present and allowing my path to teach me more about myself and what my next best step is going to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://madeforconcept.org
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/taylorbrookefair
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-brooke-fair/
• Other: https://instagram.com/madefornashville