Mixed media collage 22 × 17″ 2021 $495
Title after the 1966 Bob Dylan song from Blonde on Blonde — widely considered one of the greatest songs ever written.
About the work
A figurative collage in the tradition of the Northwest Mystics — Morris Graves, Mark Tobey, Kenneth Callahan — artists who found in the Pacific Northwest landscape and in Asian art a path toward the spiritual and the interior. Where those painters worked in egg tempera and ink wash, Gillespie works in found papers, tissue, acrylic, and grocery advertisements, arriving at a similar stillness by a different route.
The figure — a seated woman, contemplative and self-contained — emerges from a warm ground of layered color and collaged material. She is not illustrating the Dylan song so much as inhabiting its mood: the gap between the woman who is present and the one who haunts the imagination, the one you cannot quite reach. Dylan's Johanna is never seen. This one almost is.
The title choice reflects Gillespie's consistent practice of naming works after songs that resonate with the imagery without explaining it — creating a productive friction between what you see and what you hear in your memory.
Publication
- 86 Logic Magazine, Issue 8, 2022
Exhibition
- Langley BC Arts Council, Canada, Choose Authentic Show, Langley Civic Center, April 12 – May 24, 2023
- Coupeville Public Library, Ethereal Journeys, January 2026
- Modern Myth Making, City of Burien Gallery Program at Merrill Gardens, June 5 – September 24, 2026
To purchase Contact GJ Gillespie at garjog@gmail.com
 |
| GJ Gillespie Artist |
Artist Statement
My work exists outside of time. Ancient Greek heroes emerge from supermarket circulars and consumer ephemera. Egyptian pharaohs are built from crossword puzzles. Mid-century abstract figures dissolve into Pacific Northwest landscapes layered with colored tissue and found paper.
Working in mixed-media collage from a 1928 Tudor Revival farmhouse on Whidbey Island, I stand on the shoulders of giants — riffing on cultural icons from Greek mythology, Pompeii frescoes, and the mid-century masters who transformed what painting could express: Arshile Gorky, the Northwest Mystics Morris Graves, Mark Tobey, and Kenneth Callahan.
Titles of each piece are drawn from rock and pop music, connecting ancient imagery with modern soundtracks.
While the themes may seem lofty, viewers will sense a playfulness in the work. Pompeii frescoes meet grocery ads. Ancient Greek busts emerge from fast food wrappers. When it comes to making art I follow the philosophy of Thoreau: the world is but a canvas to our imagination.
Biography
GJ Gillespie (b. 1955) lives and works in a 1928 Tudor Revival farmhouse on Whidbey Island, WA. His mixed-media collage practice draws on the Northwest Mystics, mid-century abstract expressionism, Greek and Roman mythology, and song titles from rock and pop music. He has completed six residencies at the UW Whiteley Center, Friday Harbor Labs. In addition to winning 19 awards, his work has appeared in 77 exhibitions and 214 journal publications.
 |
| GJ Gillespie Studio |
Gillespie Home overlooking Oak Harbor
No comments:
Post a Comment