Featured Artist Gale Gibbs

Artist Gale Gibbs creates mixed media paintings filled with bustling activity and stories to tell. Visit her website to see more of her art.

 

 

I consider myself a contemporary storyteller.

 

 

My dad is gone now but he loved a good story and of course it worked its way into my own art. I think of stories as operas, comedies, two to three act plays and fairy tales.

 

 

I work from photos I take and draw from, and free thinking. Stories develop as I go along so often, I don’t know where they will end up.

 

 

I reflect things I see in society or dream would come true. I use ordinary abstract animals, like fish and turtles to show direction and movement. And I love the symbol of chairs because of the variety of meanings they can imply.

 

 

Often, I show them turned over or with holes in the upholstery and all of that has a meaning to me. Each story takes a life of its own combining visual and free thought.

 

 

I use abstract characters to speak with a voice that is their own. I scribble, use words occasionally and anything that comes into my mind as the drawing or painting begins its own journey.

 

 

My stories also reflect social change. By allowing people to draw their own interpretation, my story becomes the viewer’s story.

 

 

I love to draw and to paint. As an older artist, I feel satisfaction that the simple act of making art for the last thirty years has been everything I hoped it would be. I’ve shown in many national and gallery shows with well-known curators.

 

 

In 2018, I had three pieces in EXPO 37, B.J. Spoke Gallery, Huntington, New York juried by Cara Manas of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Recently I have shown in two gallery shows—Works on Paper, curated by Emmanuel Gillespie, Pencil on Paper Gallery, Farmers Branch and Finding Beauty in the Mundane, Levee Art Gallery, Monroe, Louisiana.

 

 

I have loved cave painting, abstract expressionism, Degas, Kahlo, The Garden of Earthly Delight, Peter Bruegel, the elder, Kathe Kollwitz, Max Beckmann, Vincent Van Gogh and Susan Rothenberg.

 

Want to stay current on cutting edge business articles from Artsy Shark, plus artist features, and an invitation to the next Call for Artists? Subscribe to our twice-monthly Updates, and get a free e-book on Where to Sell Art Online right now!