KIRKLAND ART CENTER THRESHOLD SHOW

Eve of Destruction
Framed in rustic barn wood.

GJ Gillespie Submission

Theme of Heritage & Hindsight.

"To kick off the year we'll begin with an examination of where we are now within our present moment in history. As we stand on the threshold of the present we ask:
How did we get here, and what is the future going to look like with the foundation we've laid?
What lead us to this moment in time and how will it continue to lead us?
Where are we taking it?"
More at KAC

Choose Authentic by GJ Gillespie.
Collage. 22 x 17. 2018

This piece is based on a sketch I made of the sculpture "Solitude of the Soul" by Lardo Taft (1913) at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Embedded with corporate logos, the contemplative figure is surrounded by social urgencies expressed as liquor and timepiece ads.

Tissue, graphite, watercolor, custom dyed cloth, magazine ads. 

Lifecycle by GJ Gillespie.

Collage. 22 x 17. 2016

Audubon Bird figures mirror each other -- one alive, the other spirit -- looking at origin and destiny.

The white bird alludes to ghostly birds of Northwest Mystic painters like Morris Graves.

This piece won a national art award from the Midwest Review, a literary and art quarterly magazine.

Lifecycle detail 

Eve of Destruction by GJ Gillespie.

Collage with Drain-o. 24 x 20. 2016.

Figure is based on an airport scan image.
Material: Paper, tissue, Japanese magazine, oil stick, spray paint, ink, graphite and painted with Drain-o drain cleaner.

The drain cleaner acid degrades, improves, the image with time. The slow physical degradation of the art mimics our own.

Below, see what the piece looked like when it was made in 2016.

Eve of Destruction by GJ Gillespie. 2016.