ARTIST STATEMENT
After a long teaching career and extensive travel, my interest in art has moved from thedelighted observer and enthusiastic hobbyist to serious student and experimental artist. Curiosity and inventiveness have long been hallmarks of my work in the classroom and now in my paintings. One of my goals at the graduate level was to incorporate the experimentation with layers, bubbles, and media with meaning, symbolism and philosophy. After more than seven decades of living, the lessons learned show in the works; the layers are complicated, overlappingand difficult to separate.
Inspiration comes from studying past and modern masters as well as reading philosophy and comparative religious texts. The labyrinth is a visible representation of the journey of life for many cultures and certainly is part of my work. The layering of structure over chaos plays a role in representing the attempt of the mind to bring some sense and insight into the apparently random and disordered universe.
Layering different media with a variety of images evokes the overwhelming glut of information and images from modern technology. Learning to focus on the important, relevantand meaningful makes a painting evocative of the struggles facing all humans. If the artist can find the quiet spaces among the loud and jumbled places, then there is hope.
© Gail Williamson Cope