Although she’d been creating art all her life, it took coming to Marshall for one grad to realize her dreams could become her reality.

“I’ve always been creating, but I never thought that I could do it as a job until I went to Marshall,” Samantha Taylor said. “They taught me the different fields and lanes that you could go down that I didn’t even know that I could do. And they were like, ‘If you can’t find a job, make a job.’”

Taylor was one of many artists featured in the Downtown Huntington Art Walk, which took place on Friday, July 18. The art walk is in its second year and occurs on the third Friday of each month in the summer, giving a platform to visual artists, musicians and graduates from Marshall University.

Huntington artist Jacob Wood may have had his work on display at the art walk, but art was not always a part of his life. Instead, he said Marshall was the reason his eyes were opened to the creative field.

“I was very sheltered growing up and I went to a private school, and they didn’t have any creativity. I had no art class. We had music, but that was it,” Wood said. “It was very limited, so as I grew up and I went to college for the first time, my first art class that I ever took was in my second semester of college.”

“It opened a path for me,” Wood added. “I found out while I was in college and from going to the museum just how many different avenues that art can open up to you.”

Likewise, Taylor said she wouldn’t be the artist she is today without the professors that she had during her time at Marshall.

“It was very motivational. The support system there was so good. The teachers push you to do better than what you think you can do. It’s stressful, but in the best way,” Taylor said. “I honestly wouldn’t be as creative if it wasn’t for them.”

Taylor said she still holds on to the memory of one critique she received at Marshall because of how it changed her perspective on growth in art.

“I was told that the paintings were just existing. They weren’t good or bad. That moment was a moment for me that opened up my eyes, and I was like, ‘This painting is only done because I said it was done when it’s really not,’” Taylor said.

“It showed me that, even just because I put something down or I finish a pot, that doesn’t have to be when it ends,” she added. “I can always go back to it. I can always add more to it. I can always push it a step further. When I think I’m done, push it again. Add something else, change something to it, give it a new life.”

Taylor and Wood have both continued to work within the creative field since graduating from Marshall in 2023.

Taylor is a full-time instructor at Capital Clay Arts Company in Charleston, West Virginia. She sells pottery pieces and features West Virginian artists via her website.

Wood is the founder of Name Game Ceramics and has made over 400 ceramic pieces in the last three years, with every piece having a unique name for itself.

Soleil Woolard can be contacted at [email protected].