Feb '11 | An Interview with Gail Coito: Mixed Media Collage Artist.
Gail Coito is a mixed media artist based in Northern California who creates beautiful collages that offer the viewer a unique snapshot into another world and another time. What draws me to her work is the nostalgic quality of her pieces which feature snippets of text overlaid with antique imagery and wonderful textual detail. It offers a narrative that we are allowed to interpret for ourselves. I can really connect with her work because I also share her love of paper, ephemera, antique photographs, old books & fabric.
In this months feature I have a wonderful interview with the incredibly inspiring Gail Coito to find out more about her life, work, inspirations and find out who are some of her favorite artists & bloggers.
1. Hello Gail! Could you give us an introduction to you and the work you create?I worked in the corporate world most of my life, always feeling like a square peg in a round hole. I never felt like I ever fit in -- anywhere. One of the miracles and gifts of aging; I don't mind anymore, and I realize I fit, with myself...and that's all that really matters.My favorite things to do as a child were coloring and playing with paper dolls. I remember how just the "act of cutting their clothes out" from the restraints of the page enraptured me and how thrilling it was, to engage in the act of "cutting." I used to trace their dresses onto plain white paper, and then I would get out my crayons and design new clothes for them.I have always loved design and modern art...my idols are Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell, Robert Rauschenberg, Anne Ryan...to name just a few. My creativity has taken many forms over the course of my life...writing, dancing, fashion, cooking. I started creating visual art over 20 years ago...and just can't stop! It's all I want to do every day. Now that I work only one day a week, I spend most of my time in my studio. I was raised in New England and do still love it there...now I ADORE and live in Northern California near San Francisco. I can't imagine myself living anywhere else....Italy maybe!
2. What media, mediums and processes do you work with?I am primarily a mixed media collage artist having an intense love affair with paper of all sorts. I have studied paper making and decorative processes such as marbling and paste papers, and handmade books, etc. When I first began "arting," I created abstract collages, but now I mostly do representational collage using found images and old photographs and incorporate paint, fabric, and found objects. I love old and tattered books and ephemera, the more worn, the better. Most recently, I have begun incorporating stitching from a newly purchased sewing machine!!My style of collage is primarily narrative, although I am always searching internally for something different!! When I create, it seems to come from an intuitive place...I rarely have a pre-conceived notion of what to do. I sit at my work table and search through images, papers...feel the colors and textures in my hands until something lands on my substrate. I don't glue anything down until there are a lot of elements on the page. Then I begin moving things around until what I see before me seems to sit (or fit) well, in my opinion. I enjoy experimenting with media I don't normally use, like one day I just bought a chunk of graphite at the art supply store...saying to myself..."I wonder how this would look!"3. Where do you get your inspiration from?My inspiration comes from many sources----my thoughts and feelings...wander around inside me...without censorship....changing moment to moment like an endless, vast landscape. They have a life of their own....and I am always surprised and moved by the ebb and flow of my own private insanity!!!I am continuously overwhelmed, sometimes to tears, by the stunningly, rich beauty of everything in nature...trees, flowers, stars, clouds, hills......it just goes on and on, and I keep breathing it in. Music, at times, conjures up images for me....I listen, close my eyes, and the colors begin to swirl.Sometimes, I read the dictionary and words resonate in me so strongly that I will use them to title a piece I have not yet created...but move towards those words to compile the meaning in a composition.
Lastly, (but not least!) I will peruse through my old books, files full of page s of people I have never met, but they stare at me, and I stare back....deeply into their eyes and they speak to me, tell me stories, and the piece begins to build around them.
3. Can you describe yourself in three words?
Gypsy, artist, seeker. (Whheewww...that was hard....really....only 3!!)
4. Who are some of your favourite artists/bloggers?
Janet Jones, Lisa Kokin, David Wallace, Dennis Parlante, Sigilation, Lynn Whipple 
5. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Be true to yourself; follow your heart.
It has truly been inspiring to have the opportunity to interview Gail and gain more of an insight into her wonderful creations and creative spirit. If you would like to see more of Gail Coito's work you can visit her website. I'm sure she would love to hear any comments you have and I would like to personally thank Gail for her time and sharing her work with me!
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