Taylor Powell has figured out how to turn what often can be a detriment into his superpower.
As a student, Powell didn’t do well in school. He loved the process of learning, but not the process of school. He loved to channel his creativity with drawing, but so many people told him that art didn’t pay, so he scrapped any ideas of going into an artistic career and, instead, followed his family’s tradition of serving in the military.
Now, at age 31, Powell has figured out how to turn his ADHD, a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects a person’s ability to pay attention, into his superpower. His tools – a blank canvas, charcoal, pencils and paintbrushes, and his imagination. Throw in some determination and resilience to add to his toolbox.
His journey as an artist didn’t follow a normal path. Nothing in his journey could be defined as normal. Consider that after he finished his military service, which included tours during both war and peace times, he traveled the country, lived out of an 80-pound backpack for four months, and became an advocate for the homeless and those suffering from addiction. Or that he became a part-time private investigator because of his desire to help people he met along his route. He found two people who had been missing when he stopped in Las Vegas.
He documented his travels through a Facebook page, Traveling Taylor Takes On America, which attracted the attention of Dr. Phil and the Today Show because of how he found those two missing people – Cody and Kate. Cody and Kate were both homeless addicts.
His ability to find the missing people came from his hyperfocus, one of the hidden superpowers of those with ADHD.
“I had no idea that that was something that could even come about,” Powell said. “I was struggling with my mental health. I was suffering mentally and initially that trip was an opportunity for me to go find some peace. I was going to turn my phone off and turn my social media off. And I was also seeking some adventure, like what else is there? I didn’t like the direction my life was going.”
His travels took him around the country and helped him heal some of his mental health. As he healed, the journey led him back to his passion of art. He snapped iPhone photos of the people he met along his journey. Those photos soon found themselves onto his canvas. One of those shows a homeless man named Cowboy and his dog on the streets of Nashville.
“You can see that this man lives outside because of the texture of his skin,” Powell said, pointing to the fine details of a weathered face. “You can see that he has some damage. You can see that he’s an IV drug addict. That’s one of the reasons this man specifically was homeless. You can see that he doesn’t have a lot of money for new clothes because his clothes are tattered. There’s holes. He’s covered in dirt. He’s got dirt under his fingernails. You can see that he’s got scars around his eyes, but also laugh lines. He’s a happy man.”
Perched in Cowboy’s lap is a dog that Powell has carefully drawn with rich details that accent the dog’s hair. “You can see that he’s got a love for his dog,” he said. “And her name is Toothpaste, by the way.”
His artwork stretches from pencil to charcoal to pastel. He points around a room in his house to show his evolution as an artist, from beginning pencil sketches to a more detailed design with pastels. With every stroke of the pencil or paintbrush, he learns more about his ability to create art. He uses that ADHD superpower of hyperfocus to study and learn as he creates art.
“I didn’t realize how much it affected me until I saw it reflected in my art,” he said. “That’s why I say my art is a reflection of me.”
ADHD is not Powell’s only superpower. He’s also color blind. Specifically, he has protonopia, or a red-green color blindness in which the red is not visible.
“I don’t let my color blindness define or alter my art in any way,” he said.
He’s referenced his color blindness in several of his TikTok videos under his username of Sketchbook Diaries. The video caption says ‘you can’t draw in color because you’re color blind’. Then the next frame advances to show him in front of the canvas painting. “Yeah, I also don’t listen.”
He’s learned color theory and he has used apps to help him determine the colors he needs for his art.
Powell pointed to a piece behind him on a black canvas. This piece tells the story about a friend who wants to live on a sailboat full time and sail around the world. The friend asked Powell to come up with a design that he could put on his boat. The design resembles an octopus with a spyglass. As with most of Powell’s artwork, it has multiple layers and intricate designs.
As with many of his artistic pursuits, he taught himself several techniques, including how to use Photoshop, a digital photography editing software, as he crafted the spyglass design.
“This piece is a narrative of young people maturing through life, gaining that life experience which creates wisdom,” he said. “But what happens is when we’re young adults, we have this mental process where we only look at the nuts and bolts. We look at our feet. We take it one step at a time, and it’s day by day.
“It’s a hard march through deep water and it’s a battle, an uphill battle, a serious struggle for some people. And at some point, when that maturation hits just right, there’s a tipping point where you find more success in the things that you are doing in life. And you pick your head up from your feet and look to the horizon. That was part of our conversation.”
As Powell has created art, he’s also found healing, thanks to the help of Leanne Johnson, founder of HealThy Self. She is helping him with working through issues associated with PTSD, as well as helping him handle his art business and networking.
“You know, in order to heal, we need to feel heard and that’s kind of the point of therapy,” Johnson said. “And that’s what Taylor is doing, communicating through the art. And the same way, art therapy works for more people. It isn’t just for artists. You don’t have to be good at the art for art therapy to do its thing. You can still communicate a story and be heard through the art. We are promoting healing through passion.”
For Powell, that communication has helped him to heal and to use his superpowers to tell stories through art.
“But I think it’s possible that I’m exceptionally smart,” he said. “That’s why I can do all these crazy high-level things. But it’s also possible that normal brains do normal things. And neurodivergent people are the ones that do great things. And I think that ADHD gives you a rare power to commit to something 100%, so that’s a lot of my advice to people.”
The next step in Powell’s story is enrolling at Murray State University to study art and learn about the business of being an artist.
Powell’s work can be seen on social media at Sketchbook Diaries on Facebook and TikTok and at https://www.sketchbookdiary.art/
Johnson’s business page can be viewed at www.Facebook/LeanneJohnsonHTS.
