We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ajay Gustafson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ajay, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

There were two recent paintings that were particularity impacting to me, for both their formal and conceptual qualities. For the painting ‘Outside’, I took 25 wooden panels and painted one each day, for 25 consecutive days. Each of the panels were painted on location from direct observation. One panel completed in one day. Using a different limited primary palette for each day I went out to the yard to paint. I stood in the same spot and studied my limited viewpoint, only that small section of the larger world in front of me was what I would represent that day. I painted what I saw using simplified shapes and the most accurate colors I could considering the limited palette for that day. When the 25 individual panels were pieced together, a larger interconnected tapestry is seen. The colors and shapes don’t line up, but the landscape still reads not as a cacophony of parts, but it reads as a whole. To me, these paintings are a powerful lesson on perception and how each person, or even how our own perceptions changes over time. Though looking at the same moment in front of us, our perceptions are not rigid, but fluid, and constantly evolving and changing over time.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Artist Statement I am an observational painter focused on the abstracted qualities of realism. As a quiet introspective personality, the opportunity to contemplate my domestic lifestyle through painting is something that feels natural as well as meaningful. Commonplace is an important subject matter in my work because ‘ordinary’ is the bulk of our lives and I want to celebrate that. Ordinary is enough to be valuable. Worth is not found in extravagance.Though subject matter such as transracial family representation, still life and domesticity is present in my work, it is the formal qualities that hold my fascination and sense of wonder.
My aim is to take a complex viewpoint and communicate the message that there is strength in simplicity and that being quiet can be more easily heard than shouting.

Bio
Ajay Gustafson is a painter and printmaker from Grand Junction Colorado. She graduated from Colorado Mesa University in 2021 with a BA in Art History and in 2023 with a BFA in Studio Art. Her studio is located in Fruita Colorado at F.A.R.M.-Fruita Arts and Recreational Marketplace. She studied painting and printmaking during her University study with artists, Eric Elliott, Allison Harris and Josh Butler as well as taking over 15 live on-line painting workshops from artists such as Zoey Frank, Susan Lichtman, Nicolas Uribe, Edmond Praybe and during the COVID lockdown period. In July she will be completing a residency at New York Academy of Art in NYC.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Artist Susan Lichtman stated, “Painting is a life of the mind.” This resonated with me very much so when I heard her saying it during a workshop session. As a quiet, introspective personality, art fuels me as a place to study, ask questions, challenge myself and contemplate the thoughts I spend so much time considering in my mind. It takes an abstract, and complex way of thinking and simplifies our questions and ideas into concrete choices reflected in the paintings I make. It provides a place for those thoughts to go and gives me a better understanding of myself. As I then view the artwork of others, it feels like a dialogue as I get to soak in the thoughts and ideas that they so generously share through their own artwork.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Thoughts on Resilience If there is one thing I may struggle with in painting, perhaps it’s “time”. I have made quite a bit of time in my day to day schedule to give painting my full focus. I drive 15 minutes during the week, from my home to the studio, M-Th from 10-4. That’s has been my time to study, experiment, and create. I am grateful for this time. I am also aware it is a privilege to be able to make painting my full focus. The time I’m referring to, is to not giving in to the voice that tell you, you waited too long to fully invest in your art professionally. I’m 42, my kids are now 22,17 and 15. After investing 2 years in university, I took a pause, a long pause, to invest those years in raising my three children at home. Two children were adopted from Ethiopia,and the third born at home,(literally) they needed and had my full attention while they were young. I went back to university when I was 37 and have since graduated with a degree in Art History as well as Studio Art and have a public studio space I work from. I have plans to attend grad school, but am choosing to wait until my youngest graduates from High School.
These things I am speaking of don’t pair with the word resilience, because they were not hardships or struggles I am enduring. They were choices. I chose to stay home and raise my children as many career focused women may also choose to do. The resilience isn’t in the choice, but the resilience comes from overcoming the obstacle of time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ajaygustafson.com
• Instagram: ajay_gustafson_painting