greetings, y'all
I'm Gillian, the Artist.
I live and work in Pioneertown, ca
(I moved here in mid 2020 after a good decade making art in san francisco).
I make mixed media collage artworks and sculpture full-time. Most of my pieces are handmade, one-of-a-kind.
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My saints, deities, angels, and entities are visual representations of the ephemeral. Each moment of direct experience is packed with incredible flavor, subtlety, and magic. This dynamism of life- that each moment is devoured by what comes next, before it can be fully experienced- is the reason I create art.
Pulling inspiration from dreams, realizations, and my spiritual perspective, I create scenes that translate the essence of a fleeting moment into something that eyes and minds can linger on. Still, these images I create are mysterious, symbolic, dream-like… much like reality itself, these images contain elements of knock-you-upside-the-head specificity while also containing paradox and mystery.
My artwork is about life, death, rebirth, transformation, loss, beauty, pain, confusion, transcendence… and the miracle that all those flavors of experience can be present in a single moment.
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My work has evolved from photography, to digital collage, to hand cut photo collage, painting, and now, mixed media wall sculpture, and yes, even music.
I've been making art as "enlightenment barbie" since 2014, following a sudden spiritual zap from beyond that left me fearless to create boldly and pursue a wild vision.
Caution to the wind, baby.
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before that, I got a bachelor of Fine Arts at the good ol University of Idaho in 2010.
There, I studied mostly painting and video art, and also specialized in being that weird evangelical christian who showed up to church hungover.
For ten years my process was meticulous. Building precise compositions digitally, using photographs I took of specific places and things that I loved, and of people I chose (often friends, models, and myself), then blowing them up into large scale, hand cut collages covered in resin- or, for a period of time, painting those compositions. It was labor intensive, but it felt easy. I had my process down to a science, and the only moments of uncertainty were in the digital development phase- when I would become unsure about a color choice here or there, or how to handle the background- or, later in the process, possibly how to glue down a very large shape. It was easy because I knew exactly what the end result would look like from day 1.
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The pandemic saw my husband and I moving into a trailer, so until I could build my art studio, I focused on writing, recording, and producing my first ever album, called *sense of impending dawn* under the moniker *golden evil* which you can find on this site under portfolio/golden evil.
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Recently I've been changing the way I make original art, leaning into assemblage sculpture and free-form mixed media. I still create digital art, which you can find in my shop.