One day, contemporary pop artist Taylor Smith found a stack of computer floppy disks. “I thought they would be really interesting to use as a canvas,” she says. “They’re not recyclable. So, by incorporating them into my artworks, I am saving them from landfills and helping prevent microplastics from entering our waterways.” Taylor also uses commercial packaging and scraps of found paper advertising.

“These objects, once functional and ubiquitous, are now discarded without much thought,” she says. “By repurposing them into my collage work, I give them a second life.”

Taylor’s art explores the passage of time, the intersection of past and present and the ability to reimagine what is forgotten. She lets materials tell their own stories, whether it’s the bold graphics of a vintage cereal box or the faded hues of an old magazine clipping. For example, her current show at Pando Fine Art on Main Street features astronaut skiers and snowboarders, Native American and cowboy icons, pop culture heroes and classic exotic sports cars.

“My work has always been rooted in a deep fascination with American cultural mythology, those larger-than-life figures and narratives that shape our collective imagination,” says Taylor. “The floppy disk, an obsolete technology, becomes my canvas, reinforcing themes of memory, nostalgia and the impermanence of the icons we once revered.”

Taylor’s family traveled frequently and appreciated pop culture. Her father was the vice president of a private airline in the 1960s and her mother, an artist, once had the opportunity to purchase one of Andy Warhol’s original Campbell’s soup paintings in 1962 for $100 but passed. So when a friend living in Germany invited Taylor to visit, she jumped at the chance booking a one-way ticket, enrolling in art school and never looking back.

“Living, working and studying art in Germany — both in Nürnberg and Berlin — was a transformative period in my career,” she says.

“The energy of that time shaped my creative approach in profound ways. At the Academy of Fine Arts (Akademie der Bildenden Künste), I was immersed in a culture that valued both technical mastery and conceptual depth. Berlin was an incubator for artistic rebellion.”

Taylor had the rare opportunity to help with Keith Haring’s mural on the Berlin Wall in 1986 before it fell.

“That experience — standing before a literal and symbolic divide, layering my own artistic expression onto a surface charged with political tension left an indelible mark on my practice,” she says. “It reinforced my belief that art is not just a means of self-expression, but a powerful vehicle for dialogue, transformation and preservation.”

In Utah, Taylor lived across from the Swaner Preserve and converted an extra room into a studio. “My family and I spent countless hours in the area, skiing in the winter and exploring the trails in the summer, which gave me a deep connection to the landscape and community,” she says. Eventually, Taylor moved back to Indianapolis to care for her parents. Her mother had Parkinson’s disease and related dementia and her father had dementia.

“My parents’ struggles with memory loss have profoundly shaped my perspective, making me acutely aware of how fragile, yet persistent, our recollections can be,” she says. “Even as details fade, certain images, objects and emotions remain embedded in ways that defy logic.”

Taylor’s work is held in diverse collections across the globe including the Cleve Carney Museum of Art in Illinois.