Karen T. Taylor
| Karen T Taylor | |
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Taylor on the television set of The Decrypters, Spring 2012
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| Born |
March 6, 1952 Fort Worth, Texas, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Forensic Artist Portrait Sculptor Facial Identification Specialist Art Educator and Author |
| Website | www.karenttaylor.com |
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Karen T. Taylor (born March 6, 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-1980s, 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.
Taylor, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, developed an early aptitude for drawing and sculpting faces. She attended R. L. Paschal High School, the University of Texas School of Fine Arts in Austin 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.
Taylor was a forensic art instructor for over twenty years at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia (through the fall of 2006) and other law enforcement academies, universities, art and medical schools internationally. She also conducts face-related training workshops for fine artists and specializes in highly accurate and subtly expressive portraits in bronze.
Taylor now lives in the Austin, Texas area.
Director's Citation
In October, 1997 Texas Department of Public Safety, Colonel Dudley M. Thomas honored Taylor with a "Director's Citation" for service beyond the normal course of duty, "performing the difficult task of identifying victims and assisting in bringing dangerous criminals to justice". Director Thomas recognized her "professionalism, ambition, and talent which advanced her status as a forensic artist to a position that leads the nation in providing a variety of forensic art techniques and services". The award made particular note of Taylor's ingenuity and initiative which led to the development of the 2-dimensional facial reconstruction technique that "has been recognized internationally, revolutionizing skull-to-face reconstruction and making an invaluable contribution to the Department, law enforcement and anthropological research."
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