about the artist

Described as a creative force by her instructors and collegiate professors, art-making for Gillian is a way to cope with feeling isolated in the unforgiving experience of being a black gay woman in a praised white world. She describes using her creativity as a pathway to finding acceptance in social settings, hoping that whatever impressive beauty saw within her work would extend to their perception of Gillian herself. 

She never felt constricted by traditionalist methods of making, gravitating toward drawing and collage and tending toward saturated blocks of hot and warm colors, a skewed sense of spatial perspective, and a thematic ode to the vibrant joy of memory-making with loved ones, loved places, and missed moments held close. 

Her current work depicts the inherent imperfection of recalling these realities. She finds magic in what lived moments look like when they transcend through stages of memory. Vivid memories decrease in resolution as time drives us forward.  She believes the distance from our own world invites the liberty to fill in new color in the context of an ever-evolving timeline of personal history. 

Her body of work extends from realism to semi-abstract, often embracing the imperfections of perception. Her intense palette selection honors the lucid impact of being present in the living color surrounding us. Gillian’s creative output continues to broaden through each era of her becoming.

“The colors, textures, and subject matter I tackle, often depict a chaos true to my lived experience of not wanting to be forgotten. I hope to portray what I find so beautiful in the experience of this body, the home that built me and beckons, the beauty that I find within varied intimate circles of belonging, and the intensity of growing up around black bodies striving to create a purpose and legacy that repairs us.” - Gillian E.