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

Caitlin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I have mixed feelings about this question. I went to college for painting and drawing and graduated in 2010. I stopped painting for 10 years and didn’t resume until 2020. In the interim, I got married, bought a house, and got at a graduate degree in Curatorial Practice and Art Criticism. When I graduated from my MFA program I pursued a job in exhibitions management and spent the majority of my free time focusing on my career. I started to paint again when my marriage was failing. It has served as a way for me to process the grief and resentment I felt in my heteronormative marriage and as a means to unpack my role in my nuclear family and my function as a wife. I’m a firm believer that there is no right time or wrong time, but I do believe my work would look a lot differently from the work I make now had I continued post-undergraduate with my art practice (for better or for worse). I often feel like I’m making up for lost time a lot and that drives my work and motivates me to do more than at times I’m capable of (admittedly). I think I’m exactly where I”m supposed to be regardless of preconceived ideas about timing or time. I think sometimes we just have to accept that even if life isn’t what we planned we’re on a path for a reason. My marriage and my decade break from making art ultimately created a narrative within my work that otherwise I don’t believe would be present without those experiences.

Caitlin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

For folks who may not have read about you before, can you please tell our readers about yourself, how you got into your industry / business / discipline / craft etc, what type of products/services/creative works you provide, what problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others. What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc. Please provide as much detail as you feel relevant as this is one of the core questions where the reader will get to know about you and your brand/organization/etc

I am a mixed-media artist living in Baltimore, Maryland. I have a B.A. in Drawing and Painting from Towson University and an MFA in Curatorial Practice and Art Criticism from the Ontario College of Art and Design. I have exhibited extensively and identify as an emerging artist. In addition to my career as an artist, I am the exhibitions manager for a Baltimore-based contemporary art gallery, Maryland Art Place, and an independent curator who is most interested in the queer-body and feminist theory.

I employ printmaking, sculpture, drawing, painting, collage, and fiber to create artwork that explores ideas of identity, femininity, and domesticity. My work examines the patriarchy the male gaze and gender through animal and insect portraits. The juxtaposition between lace, pressed flowers and other materials with the foreground imagery of birds and bugs acts as a dialogue surrounding how I feel as a female-identifying versus how I feel I must be perceived by society and my experience performing gender. Using traditional craft materials and skills such as sewing, felting, crocheting, ceramics, scrapbook paper, doilies, stencils, and stamps, I also explore the divergence between craft and fine art and the implicit misogyny within the distinction between the two. My work is labor intensive and acknowledges the invisibility of female labor in the home and in marriage and the lack of value inferred in “women’s work.” By Evoking ideas of discomfort and repulsion, I encourage viewers to engage in the inherent violence exercised in the construct of the feminine.

My work is deeply personal and I believe that’s what sets me apart. I see each of my pieces as an extension of myself, either as a self-portrait or an expression of a feeling that I’m unable to articulate. I see my art practice as a journal chronicling in real-time my journey surrounding my identity and the confusion, vulnerability, alienation, and rejection I’ve felt throughout that process.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think buying artwork is a huge way to support artists and creatives. I also believe compensating artists for their time is valuable. I would say not being a gatekeeper sharing resources and supporting your creative community is also monumental. Access to information surrounding funding, professional development, and continuing education is also really impactful and important. I’ve really appreciated the ways in which social media has normalized a lot within the art community including demystifying the creative struggle, like the pressure to produce etc., and also making access to information so accessible. It has been really validating to see other artists on Instagram or TikTok share their stories but also beneficial to see their creative process hacks, tips, and tricks. The creative ecosystem is super fragile and I believe in order to thrive it’s important we stay united and support one another in the ways in which we are able – even if it’s as simple as a follow or showing up to an art opening.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the biggest lessons that I had to unlearn and am still unlearning is that I’m not working against time. I think there is a lot of pressure to achieve “goals” in life within a certain timeframe. Time is a construct and life isn’t linear. There are so many ways to get where you’re going and there is no projected or designated timeframe. I wish I had known that in my 20’s. In my 20’s I was so afraid of 30. I kept feeling like once I was 30, if I hadn’t achieved certain things I had somehow failed. It feels ridiculous now, looking back. But at the time I was so impatient. I do have to continuously remind myself not to rush things but I feel I have a healthier relationship with myself and time now more than ever.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://caitegill.wixsite.com/mysite
• Instagram: @cicaidy.lynn