Statement

Gail Spaien — Statement
My paintings are places, and I approach them as such. As a painter, I turn my back on the external world and enter the world of the painting. I hope a viewer might do that too. When people say, “I want to go there,” I feel I have hit the mark in some way.

The way I make my work is a performance of slowness. Created through repetitive handcraft, my process reflects an intimate, intentional way of experiencing and translating my surroundings. Blending still life with landscape, often depicting a unification between the interior and exterior, the paintings are compact reductions of lived experiences — permeable arenas of contemplation. Spectators who view the work become inhabitants of a world in slower motion.

Marked by decorative patterning, flattened space, and slightly skewed perspectives, my paintings are inspired by the landscape that surrounds me — both observed and imagined. They celebrate beauty in the ordinary and suggest that attention to the rhythms and activities of daily life, rooted in the well-worn paths of routine, can be a form of quiet resistance and renewal.

Helen Molesworth conveys my sentiments in her catalog essay for the Karma Gallery exhibition (Nothing but) Flowers when she writes:

"I persist in arranging [flowers] in vases, and placing them in tableaux. It occurred to me
recently that, when I did this, one of the things I was doing was wordlessly saying, ‘I believe
in today.’ Surely the first step toward a hopeful future, or hope for the future, is to commit
oneself to the day at hand. The flowers in their vases, assembled in a way to draw attention
and spark pleasure, are akin to the making of an altar, a devotional space dedicated to the
everyday. And can it be this simple quotidian act is a form of care? Might the act of arranging
the flowers be a small offering toward the repair of the great violence of the world?"

Painting the invisible substance of daily life is like arranging a bouquet — a small, visual reminder of the relationship between the spiritual and familiar earthly rhythms that keep us rooted and connected.