Gillian Theobald
Gallery Affiliations: Cirrus Gallery, Linda Hodges Gallery
Region: Pacific Coast
Website: http://www.gilliantheobald.net
City / State: SEATTLE, WA
I like doing more than one body of work at a time, in different
media. When I move back and forth between painting and collage,
it’s clear how the two practices feed each other.
The grammar of my paintings is abstract but uses the imagery of
nature—thus the title of the series, Fictive Space. I’m interested
in building this meditative, slow space using juxtaposition and
dichotomy, with families of color playing off each other to create
a kind of poem.
The grammar of the collages is also abstract, using found paper
and paint to fabricate a space. I started making collages in 1979 to
teach myself more about structure. I had a huge studio I could fill
up with found materials, so I made over three hundred.
I especially like paper that has been eroded—a record of time.
In 2015, I came upon some good material in weathered posters
on construction fencing in New York, and brought the material
home in my suitcase. That kick-started resumption of my collage
practice.