Karen T. Taylor

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For other persons named Karen Taylor, see Karen Taylor (disambiguation).

Karen T. Taylor (born 1952) is an American Forensic and Portrait Artist who has worked for over a quarter century helping resolve prominent criminal cases for a variety of law enforcement agencies throughout the world. Her primary expertise includes composite imagery, child and adult age progression, postmortem drawing and forensic facial reconstruction. In the mid 1980's, Taylor pioneered the method of 2-Dimensional facial reconstruction, by drawing facial features over frontal and lateral skull photographs based on anthropological data. Taylor is also well-established as a forensic art educator, fine art portrait sculptor, and specialist in the human face.

Contents 1 Background 2 Consultant Work 3 Historical Projects 4 Publications 5 References

[edit] Background

Taylor, a native of Fort Worth Texas, developed an early aptitude for drawing and sculpting faces. She attended the University of Texas School of Fine Arts and the Chelsea School of Fine Art in London. While in England, she worked as a portrait sculptor for Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Taylor returned to Texas and spent over 18 years as the Texas Department of Public Safety's first full-time forensic artist. After years of success as a forensic artist, helping capture criminals and identify their victims, Taylor was named one of the "Texas Women of the Century" in 1999. In 2002, she was the first woman to receive the prestigious Dondero Award [1]from the International Association for Identification for her contributions to the field of scientific identificaton.

Taylor has been a forensic art instructor for over twenty years at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia and other law enforcement academies, universities, art and medical schools internationally. She also conducts training workshops for fine artists and specializes in highly accurate portraits in bronze. Her bronze sculpture of forensic scientist George Taft is displayed at the Alaska State Troopers Museum in Anchorage, Alaska. Taft's sculpture was the first in a series of Taylor's "Good Guys," a series of bronzes which commemorate individuals who have made a significant contribution to society. After years of depicting the "Bad Guys" and their victims, Taylor now also focuses on honoring the "Good Guys".

[edit] Consultant Work

Since 1990, Taylor has been a contributor to America's Most Wanted on FOX. Her work has also been featured on ABC, CBS, CNN, Court TV [2], the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, Telemundo and the BBC. CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation created a forensic artist character based on Taylor and her artwork and hands have appeared on both the Las Vegas-based and New York-based shows [3]. Taylor served as a "real life" consultant to museum exhibit "CSI: the Experience",[4]a traveling interactive exhibition developed by the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. Taylor has also contributed to the popular program Bones (TV series) on FOX.

[edit] Historical Projects

Taylor has been involved in a variety of special art projects, particularly those of historical significance, which utilize modern forensic art identification techniques in a historical context. She created the first sculpted facial reconstruction of one of the Bo People, based on an 800 year-old skull from southern China. The Bo interred their dead in mysterious hanging coffins suspended from sheer cliffs.

Using a skull casting, Taylor also revealed, for the first time, the sculpted face of the Red Queen of Palenque, a Mayan Queen [5] who lived 1000 years ago.

[edit] Publications

Karen Taylor authored the in-depth textbook, Forensic Art and Illustration, CRC Press, Boca Raton, London, New York, Washington DC, 2001. [6][7]

Taylor was featured in American Artist Drawing magazine, Summer 2006 in an article titled, "Understanding Faces from the Inside Out" by Edith Zimmerman.

[edit] References

• http://www.askart.com/askart/artist.aspx?artist=11009052
• http://www.geradts.com/anil/ij/vol_003_no_001/reviews/tb/page008.html
• http://www.karenttaylor.com/aboutKTTb.html
• http://www.theiai.org/membership/awards.php
• "Taylor, Karen T." World of Forensic Science. Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. Gale Group, Inc., 2006. eNotes.com. 2006. 16 Nov, 2007 http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/taylor-karen-t
• Taylor, Karen T., Forensic Art and Illustration, Boca Raton, London, New York, Washington D.C.: CRC Press, 2001.
• "Web Interview:Karen T. Taylor, forensic art consultant" http://www.csicollection.com/interview03.php
• Zimmerman, Edith. "Understanding Faces from the Inside Out: The Art of Forensic Drawing." American Artist Drawing, Summer 2006.