It’s been just over a week since Taylor Mae Villarreal hosted a private gallery showing of her “Faces” portraits, and her face still glows when asked about the experience of her first-ever show.
“It was a very emotional day,” Villarreal said. “Everybody showed up for me. It was magical.”
The feedback was “a little overwhelming” — and the ride is just getting started for the photographer-turned-vintage store owner-turned visual artist.
Sitting at a table inside Chimera in December, 29-year-old Villarreal discussed her transformational year, the magic of the Tulsa art universe and how she’s kicking off 2026 with a public “Faces” gallery showing Jan. 23-24 at Carson House, 1401 S. Carson Ave.
I had the privilege of seeing “Faces” on the walls at Oath Studio, and my gosh, do they grab you and pull you in close to the irises. It’s stunning. Give me the backstory on “Faces.” What made you go this route for your first show?
“The Artist’s Way.” So this last year I did “The Artist’s Way,” starting in January. It took me 10 months instead of 12 weeks. (laughs) “The Artist’s Way” is so powerful. I think I’ve always known that this is in me that I am an artist, but I’ve never let myself live in that before. I’ve always just made it a hobby or too much of a job, and like, I’ve never fully expressed my expression in art before and showed people that I’ve made things over the years that feel that way for me, which is how “Faces” came about. I kept going back to and grabbing things that spoke to me the most over the years.
And somehow, as I’m curating all of these pieces together, they happen to all be faces. They are all tight portraits. Out of all the work I’ve done, that’s what stuck with me. So, yeah, just going through the process of rediscovering myself, reconnecting with myself, figuring out, like what being an artist meant to me and owning that, too. Like calling myself an artist within this as well, because that was something I struggled with. I’m a photographer, but now I feel like I’m an artist.
Where did all this begin?
When I was young I would shut my door at night and lock it. I was a drawer and painter. I didn’t really take photos. I had not discovered where I was gonna go with it at all. It was just for fun. I would be up all night drawing and painting faces, portraits of random people. I’d just make them up in my head. And then I’d lock that shit away and put it under my bed and no one would ever see it.
I quit drawing after high school. I did AP art and stuff and I would create, but honestly, the best things I created were in my room, not in art class.
I think about everything that I created, and I think I still feel this way towards my photography. Whether it’s intentional or not, it’s coming from a place of where I’m at in life. Whether that be like the emotion that I’m pulling from somebody, the conversation that we had before the shoot that brought about these expressions, the colors I’m drawn to, the softness or harshness or the lighting that I choose, it’s all a reflection of how I feel and where I’m at in my life.
A couple of months ago you closed your vintage clothing boutique, The Sobo. We had talked just before that, and you told me about that pull to focus more on your photography work and doing big things with it. You did the thing. How does it feel now?
This year has been like a tug and pull between the two where for so long I wanted both to live in the same world together, and they did, in a way. My journey with Sobo actually started with photography. I started working for Sobo because I got hired for a shoot. I was just so obsessed with the store and getting to style from the store and all the aspects of what that meant that she was like, “Do you want to work here?” I was like, “Oh, yeah, I want to work here.”
The moment we switched over to owning it, that changed a lot. It became more about Sobo than photography, and I had the studio, and I tried to do both. I was just so spread thin that my creative brain was having to live in that world, in that moment. And I did choose Sobo for a while, and I don’t regret that at all. It was like college. I met so many incredible people. I made so many good connections. I was a part of the community. I got to try things out. I got to express myself in other ways. It gave me so much, but the time came to an end. It’s like we graduated almost into a new chapter. We really love what we made with Sobo and the community we’ve created, but at some point I was just being pulled so far into being an artist, rather than necessarily strictly a business owner.
You used Apertures Photo for printing, and then you used Ziegler Art & Frame for framing. The Ziegler experience did what it does for a lot of Tulsans, it connected you to another artist, which has now laid the foundation for you to have your first public showing of ”Faces” coming up in January. Tell me the story about what happened at Ziegler’s that you are now doing a show at Carson?
We get to Apertures, and we’re in the car just talking about a gallery we want to do, like an exhibit … How else can we do something that feels homey and inviting and warm, the same way that Oath Studio was so specifically chosen and envisioned for this specific gallery. Like, what else feels that way? And my assistant had mentioned a while back Carson House. We had then got busy and had moved on.
After Apertures, I go to Ziegler’s to get everything framed, and we’re laying my 12 photos one-by-one on the counter, measuring them, putting the frame with them, like locking them up, so that everything goes together … I had a Kelsey (Hinrichs) photo up. This lady walks in. She’s like, “Oh my gosh. I know her! I grew up with her.” That lady leaves. We’re going about our business. Put the next Kelsey photo up. Another lady walks in, and she’s like, “Oh my God, I know her. That’s Kelsey!” and I’m like, “Wow! Kelsey is just a topic right now. Everybody knows her.”
That second lady stopped and chatted with me for a minute, and she’s like, “I’m Anne (Pollard James) from Carson House.” And I literally looked at (my husband) Isaac, and we were like, “What the f—?! Crazy!” Like, before I even asked her, she was like, “You should come to my studio. I’d love to showcase your work.” Just so sweet, so helpful, so embracing, which I needed, because I was so I’m on my own in this. I’m not tapped into this community. Nobody knows what I’m doing, and nobody knows who I am. So to have her see me in that moment and also offer me her expertise, her advice, her reach, I needed that so bad that day. And on top of that, how crazy that it was Anne from Carson House? So I went to her studio and we booked it. Divine timing!
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