Rubertha Taylor ’98 has long had a gift for capturing personality on paper. Throughout her school years and later during her career as an educator, she often heard comments such as, “You are an excellent copier,” and “That drawing is amazing!” Even so, she did not think much of it at the time. “Art just was not the main thing for me then,” she says. “I was in my twenties before I realized that drawing was a talent. I honestly believed that everyone could do it.” That realization began to take shape during an unexpected moment in college.
Making Space to Hear
While preparing for a class presentation, Rubertha could not find the image she needed, so she drew one herself. As she worked, a friend’s six-year-old son stopped in his tracks and stared at the drawing. “With a look of amazement, he asked, ‘How do you do that?’” Rubertha recalls. She answered simply: “I do not know. It feels like everybody can do this.” His response was brief but unforgettable. “‘No,’ he said, and then he walked off and started playing again.” Rubertha still remembers that moment clearly. What seemed small at the time stayed with her for years. “I do not know why that moment stuck with me,” she says, “but since then, I have realized, ‘Wow, my drawing is different from what other people are able to do.’”
After graduation, Rubertha built a career in education. She spent many years as a kindergarten teacher and later taught at a university after earning her master’s degree from PTS. While pursuing her doctoral degree at Texas Christian University, she came to an important conclusion: she did not want to return to the classroom. “I did not know what I wanted to do,” she says. “I was told I am an artist by a six-year-old, but I did not see how to make a living doing that, and I had to pay my mortgage.” So, she took a job that was less mentally demanding than classroom teaching. In that quieter work, she found something she had not realized she needed: stillness.
“In the classroom, I was ‘on’ all the time,” she says. “But working a job I could do in my sleep allowed my mind to become still enough to hear my calling: ‘You have a talent for a reason, and it cannot stay locked up inside your house. It needs to be out there.’”
A Leap of Faith
Once that clarity came, Rubertha knew she had to act. “My immediate reply to this sense of clarity was, ‘It is time to step out on faith,’” she says. “I quit my job immediately and never looked back.” Although she did not yet know exactly what would come next, Rubertha did not remain stuck for long. She began taking online business courses and intentionally surrounded herself with people who were willing to encourage her and help her find direction. “I enrolled in a few business courses online, and I surrounded myself with a few people who have taken a personal interest in helping me find my way,” she says. “I have been working hard over the past three years, and it is starting to move in the right direction.”
Looking back, Rubertha believes the turning point was not only leaving her job but learning to become quiet enough to listen. “In hindsight, I can see that leaving work at work let my mind be free,” she says. “The simple way to say it is that I got still. Once that happened, I could hear.” That stillness changed not only her circumstances, but also her mindset. “My mentality shifted from, ‘How does anyone make a living as an artist?’ to, ‘Wait, I am called to this field.’”
Gratitude on the Other Side
Rubertha says the decision to leave her former career and pursue her art business has been affirmed by what she has experienced since taking that step. “On the other side of the ‘I quit’ moment was immediate joy,” she says. “It felt right.” The word she returns to again and again when describing this season of life is gratitude.
“Gratitude has always been a constant companion to me,” she says. “I feel gratitude for having my needs met—a nice home, food any time I want, and a safe vehicle for traveling. The beauty is that even when I do not know what to do, I feel peace about it. And as long as I have that peace, I know I am on the right track.” That sense of peace has strengthened her belief that she is walking the path she was meant to take.
The value of sharing her gifts with others has also become more meaningful. “Art makes us smile,” she says. “It is easy to take it for granted because art is all around us. But the reality is that none of this exists unless someone takes time to create it. It is something huge, bigger than me.”
Trust Your Instincts
For Rubertha, one lesson rises above the rest: trust the inner voice that continues to call you forward. “The message for me is this: trust your instincts—that gut feeling,” she says. “Believe that what God has for you may not look like success in the eyes of others.” She believes courage is essential when pursuing a dream, but she is equally convinced that growth is rarely linear. Even a winding road can lead exactly where it is meant to lead. “To be honest, if I had not been in the classroom, I would never have had the experience to teach a course online,” she says. “So maybe the road was not straight, but it was the road I needed to take. No experience was wasted for me.”
Rubertha Taylor ’98 is a portrait artist, arts educator, and founder of Rubertha Taylor Art. With more than 25 years of experience teaching both children and adults, she offers beginner-friendly, online drawing classes to help others develop their own style and artistic practice and to help people get better in touch with themselves. She is a graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Texas Christian University.
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