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Artist profile: Gillian Wilson

An artist profile of Gillian Wilson

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Describe your process of creating a piece. What materials do you normally work in?

Lately I’ve been alternating between painting and screenprinting. I’m most comfortable painting in oils, but since I now work from home, I begrudgingly made the switch to less toxic mediums like acrylic and gouache. I’ll usually reference a photograph or a found image, something vaguely nostalgic and sad. I don’t like to take a painting beyond the second or third sitting, in order to maintain a raw quality, though I still struggle with knowing when to stop. Screenprinting seems to involve a lot more preparation. I draw all the layers by hand which can be a pretty slow process, especially for the 8 colour prints. In some of my newer prints, I exposed paper-cuttings I’ve made to achieve a more simplistic, slightly askew appearance.

What projects are you working on? What do you have coming up, any shows?

I’ll be showing a relatively new series of screenprints at Parts Gallery in Toronto at the end of November. I’m also working on some illustrations for a story by a Toronto artist named Jeff Maus. I’ve wanted to do some collaboration work for a while and so I’m pretty pumped about it. Apart from that, I have a few paintings on the go that may or may not see the light of day.

When are you most productive?

I’m not nearly as productive as I’d like to be, but I find deadlines to be good motivators. Having a day job certainly sucks a lot of energy out of me, so most of my art making happens on my days off, ideally while the sun is still shining.

When did creating art become something important in your life?

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I suppose I was pretty young when I realized it was something I wanted to pursue. I cherished my colouring books as a child, careful not to colour outside the lines and would always put far more effort into school art projects than any other assignments. I was lucky enough to have parents who enrolled me into art classes outside of school, which fueled my interest even more.

What are some of your favorite spots in the city? Some favourite places to go, eat, drink, bike ride?

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I grew up in the Riverdale neighbourhood of Toronto where I ate lots of Greek food on the Danforth and Dim Sum in Chinatown, one of my favourite spots being Pearl Court on Gerrard St. E. I also like visiting Little Portugal where I get my fill of ‘pasteis de nata’ (custard tarts) and stop in at a great vintage store called Penny Arcade located on Dundas near Ossington. I went to art school with the owner of the shop and she was nice enough to show some of my paintings there.

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What are you currently obsessed with? Any blogs, podcasts, films, artists?

I’m really into folk art, particularly from the early 20th century. The simplicity, both in design and execution, really excites me and inspires my own art making. There’s a great Canadian documentary called Folk Art Found Me about self-taught artists living in the backwoods of Nova Scotia who make amazing sculptures from tree stumps with chainsaws. Some other artists I admire are Alex Katz, Luc Tuymans and more recently, Alika Cooper and Esther Pearl Watson.

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What are your thoughts on the Toronto/Guelph art scene compared to everywhere else you’ve experienced?

When I was at school in Montreal, the opportunities to exhibit your work seemed endless and there was a supportive network of other interesting artists. Now, being out of school for 3 years and living in a small town, promoting my work has definitely become more of a challenge. Guelph has a fairly diverse artistic community, but it’s not really a place where you can get much exposure. Luckily I’m not too far from Toronto, where I hope to be showing more of my work in the near future.

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What is your survival food? Cheap eats for the starving artist?

Espresso, grilled cheese sandwiches and veggies from my garden.

Any last words?

To see some of my work in person, visit Parts Gallery on Queen E. in Toronto.[rssbreak]

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sarat@nowtoronto.com

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