Small Sworls Painting

Gail Goriesky was born in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor degree in painting and drawing. She also attended the San Francisco Art Institute, the Academy of Art of San Francisco, the DeYoung Museum Art School, and the Torpedo Factory Art School in Alexandria Virginia. She did an apprenticeship as a paintings conservator in Great Falls, VA, and worked for the Smithsonian Institution as an (Art) conservation information specialist, desktop publisher/computer artist, and in exhibit production. She exhibited in various DC metro venues including the Foundry Gallery, the Art League Gallery, and Smithsonian juried staff exhibit at the Ripley Center on the National Mall in DC. She had an artist residency in Assisi, Italy and exhibited at the Assisi Gallery. Presently she is a member of the East Ludington Gallery in Escanaba, MI. Gail lived overseas for 16 years—15 in Europe and one in Asia. She doesn't set out to produce art in a strictly defined predetermined manner, constantly drawing and painting in her mind images and things that she observes. Gail has a tendency to work in several different styles, often getting bored and switching or creating another style. With time, patterns of styles and recurring symbols she hadn't intended emerge. Some of her work tends to focus on people and imaginary creatures to convey psychological and spiritual influences. Some of these images are whimsical others strange and mysterious. For a while images of birds invaded and dominated her paintings. They didn’t want to leave, then flew off as suddenly as they had appeared. Some of her more abstract pieces merge with a type of surrealism whereas distorted imaginary and real images combine in a complexity not originally intended. Presently, she’s trying to simplify her approach, with rather stark backgrounds using drafting tape to accentuate limited collor selection, rather than a medley of strange critters; and also employing an abstract approach similar to Malevitch’s constructionism.  Color has been a dominant part of her work. This aspect of painting has come naturally for her.