Today we’d like to introduce you to Gilda Oliver.
GILDA, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
Murals and mosaics have a long history in the visual arts which is recognized through a community participation in this tradition. The power of art to bring us together as a community and envision our creative potential was made possible by the work of the participants, contributions of sponsors and the support of the New York State Council on the Arts. My hope is that this most recent oversized mosaic mural is just one flower in a garden of arts and culture that will continue to flourish and enrich our communities.”
http://www.blouinartinfo.com/photo-galleries/gilda-oliver-at-the-port-discovery-museum
My parents were extremely interested in art and culture, thus as a child I probably had much more than what would be the usual amount of exposure to art and also was often exposed to the art studios of Willem DE Kooning and James Rosenquist in the East Hampton area. As a child of about 11 years old I often went bike riding with DE Kooning. I still remember him in his white overalls and thrilled he was the same height as I was.! However, I remember looking up at his paintings in his amazing art studio! My parents were best friends with his next-door neighbor so we often would visit there on the weekends.
Being exposed to such artists often working on a massive scale, had a profound influence on my art works. At the start from start of my art career, I only understood art on a massive scale both my own personal art works and my community art projects. At present my own personal art work is taking a smaller size approach but the community art projects are larger than ever. I also remember my father taking me, when I was a teenager to see Picassos Guernica when it was visiting New York City. I was born in Manhattan New York at Lennox Hill Hospital. My father an accomplished poet ran a poetry program at the local libraries, first in New York City then upstate New York near buffalo New York. I ha d enormous support as a child and teenager from the poets and writers visiting my parents, many who were very impactful on our culture like Allen Ginsburg. As a child he and many other nationally and internationally poets and writers known came over to stay overnight at our farm house upstate and many other know Poets. The first clay sculptures I ever made were from live models like Margaret Gibson and David McKain very known writers. Then the very first article ever published about my art work was in Ceramics Monthly about those very same portrait sculptures of the married pair.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I started out as a portrait artist making clay portraits of the famous writers and Artist’s my parents socialized with. My parents were not well off but they had a dream of enhancing culture where ever they went-so bought a farm upstate New York near Buffalo, New York in the mid-seventies and for 30 years ran a Poet’s and Artists workshop series in a small library there and with that brought the world-renowned poets and authors to the regional universities as well. That body of work lead to my doing a portrait of BF Skinner, first from Life, in the Cambridge Boston area a former professor at Harvard University and world known phycologist of Behavioral Sciences.
Eventually I become bored of doing only representational sculpture and began to make large creative clay heads but their weight was to great I didn’t like that aspect, so I learned to become an expert mold maker so I could create a clay head and make a plaster mold of it and press out the solid positive to come out like a giant empty egg shell. Every stage of my development as an artist has been documented by many art magazines nationally and internationally. I tried to always share my art processes with everyone. The mold making also came in handy when suddenly after doing sculpture from life of BF Skinner he become very ill and passed with just a couple weeks. About two weeks before he passed he asked me to make a living death mask of his face. He said he wanted to be remembered with a beautiful smile on his face! I owned a condominium for years at the Somerville Brick Bottom artist’s studio. This was very instrumental to help me get art work done at night because my art studio was right in the next room.
Do you think conditions are generally improving for artists? What more can cities and communities do to improve conditions for artists?
Conditions for artists today are extremely much harder! Because the cost of living now is much more expensive but even more. the art materials cost way more now. Back when I first was accepted at www.LoveedFineArts I could buy a ton of clay for 100 dollars and it would last a year. I had started as a painter and left painting because, at 22 years old when I left college I could not even afford to be a painter then at that time either. Clay was the ONLY material I could afford to work in back then (1996-2005). Then when I could afford to buy the Belgian Linen I love to paint on I went back to Painting. The thing about creating art is be able to pay your bills so in a way it’s easier to work a different job that pays the bills at first, then work as an artist nights and weekends. The catch is do you still have any energy left at night to create art works? That’s very tricky and gets tougher as you get older so you have to find healthy creative ways that boost your energy up. No matter what even if you have to switch medias don’t stop working. Start with 5 minutes 5 days a week.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
www.GildaOliver.com
And my gallery representative is LurieGallery.com in Los Angeles.
You can support my work by visiting my web site www.GildaOliver.com and LurieGallery.com my representative. Just go through to look at all the creative works and maybe get some new inspiration.
It is especially important as a continuing artist, to constantly seek out mentors who will inspire you to keep on going. Do not ever measure the value of your special, unique, incredible terrific art works, only by how much you do, or don’t sell your art works. Art has a monetary value but it also has many other ways of being valuable. Seek out works of art that make you feel the touch of the human hand was there upon it.
Contact Info:
- Address: www.LurieGallery.com
- Website: www.GildaOliver.com
- Instagram: @gildaoliver_artist
- Facebook: facebook.com/gilda.oliver.90 Username
Image Credit:
First portrait Photo is by Marc Oliver
Next three Ceramic clay sculptures by Dirk Bakker
smaller size community mural by Kendra Miller
BF Skinner Smiling plaster cast photo by Roger Miller
The rest of the photos by Marc Oliver and Nipun Kumar
Expcept the photo of Stefan Simchowitz with Gilda Oliver by Kaylin Welch.
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
