Today we’d like to introduce you to Gail boyajian.
Gail, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
As a child my first love was animals and being in outside in nature and I thought, at the age of 8, that I wanted to be a naturalist. I always felt comfortable with my abilities in art; I took being able to draw for granted, but I became excited by architecture in college., which I saw as a creative profession which addressed social and environmental issues and a way to earn a living so I went to graduate school and pursued that as my career. After twenty years of architectural study and practice, mostly working in large offices, I badly needed a more creative life and began to paint, at first after work and then full time. At first my imagery and material were completely different from what I had been doing as an architect: I used my friends and placed them in imaginary events based on my fantasies. Gradually I began to draw on my love of landscape, art history, buildings and animals, weaving together threads of my life.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
Painting allows me to imagine everything that I care about in the same view, including buildings, people, animals and landscapes. I include references to art history as a way of reflecting on past ideas, ideals and cultures. I am influenced by the European renaissance masters such as Bruegel, Cranach, Mantegna, Fra Angelico; the American Luminist paintings of Asher Durand, Church, Heade; 20th century painters Florine Stettheimer, Stanley Spencer, in whose work I see a narrative style and social commentary. I also feel a kinship with many illustrators such as N.C. Wyeth. I love detail and subplots within the larger view, and I feel that there are literary parallels. Now, after painting for over twenty years that still interests me although my focus has shifted to more awareness of climate change and its implications.
Since the 2016 election I have paused from painting and have started making an installation of paper Mache extinct birds, life size. They are biodegradable and not for sale, which is partly a response to what I feel are art world pressures. I will continue to paint but will incorporate this different perspective.
What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
Yes at least for me. The art world as it has been, with galleries hosting expensive objects with a long justification filled with art jargon, seems irrelevant to me. Given the looming environmental threat I want to reach beyond a small educated audience and find new places and ways to engage. The daily news cycle is ever-present in my studio.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
This year I am having two shows in Vermont where I spend four months of the year. One is at the Towle Hill Studio in Corinth Vermont in September and immediately following that will be a show in St. Johnsbury Vermont at the Fairbanks Museum and CatamountArts September through June 2019. I have a website gailboyajian@gmail.com and I can be contacted through Driveway Projects in Watertown MA.
Contact Info:
- Address: 174 lexington ave. Cambridge MA 02138
97 wetmore rd. Strafford VT 05072 - Website: gailboyajian.net
- Phone: 617 549 5589/802 765 4384
- Email: gailboyajian@gmail.com
Image Credit:
Photographs by gail boyajian
photo of me on the horse Denise Cote
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