Throughout his life, Wisconsin artist, Joseph Taylor, has expressed creativity through countless outlets. 2015 marked the beginning of his career as a visual artist. At that time he discovered the unique possibilities in working with recycled skateboard wood. With the colorfully dyed maple veneers in skateboards, his palette expanded and so did his craft. Taylor enjoyed telling whimsical stories with his visual art but as his artistic abilities evolved, the images seemed to be demanding a written story. In 2019 Taylor began writing The Walking Tree.
Alongside the written story, he began physically creating possibly the first ever children's book illustrations that would use recycled skateboards and other found wood as a medium. The process would take two years to complete. In that time Taylor would cut thousands of pieces of wood in shapes that would become blades of grass, trees, and his main characters. These pieces were then arranged onto hand painted backgrounds and photographed to one day adorn the pages of The Walking Tree. Upon completion of this project it is safe to add Author and Illustrator to Mr.Taylors growing list of titles.