Gail Perazzini Biography

Born by a northern ocean in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Gail and her family moved half a world away when she was six—to the mountains and saguaros of Arizona. These were in the days of swamp coolers, open spaces and authentic, inexpensive Kachina dolls. Though she has never forgotten the expanse of ocean and the crash of waves and rocks, the West's ragged mountains and illimitable sky long ago won her heart.

Gail was drawing as far back as she can remember, but while still in elementary school, she began to study dance. She quickly gravitated to Graham-inspired modern dance and came under the influence of the first important artist-teacher in her life. From Frances she learned the commitment and passion that art requires of those it has called. Gail remained a member of Kadimah Dancers, a semi-professional troupe, through college, and she continued taking daily dance classes until her children were in college. As much as she loved dance, Gail always knew that painting would be her life's devotion and the contemporary scene, her context. Both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees are in Painting, and her earliest favorite artist was Kandinsky.

Looking for the larger world, she began going to Mexico City in the early 1960s at a time when it was known as the Translucent City. There she discovered the rich native tradition in art and the modern renaissance that it inspired. There, too, she married, divorced and re-married, spending 18 of the next 23 years. Her two sons, Zev and Zak, were born while her first husband was doing his residency in Chicago, but grew up in Mexico. She taught art to a generation of young children (and some of their children before she was done!) and studied in the workshop of the late Toby Joysmith, the second important artist-teacher in her life. Gail began her professional career in 1974, showing her paintings and pen-and-ink drawings in various galleries and, presciently, in an annual outdoor show sponsored by the American School Foundation.

Gail and Randy met in Florence, Italy, in 1977, and were married in Mexico City two years later. For the next seven years, they traveled during every school holiday—Western and Eastern Europe, China, Japan, the Soviet Union, as well as driving and camping throughout Canada, Mexico and the U.S.—and Gail drew, painted, danced and taught the rest of the time. Randy began to help in her art, mainly with the physical, display and office sides of things, but also as a second pair of eyes. "It takes two people to paint a painting," Gail is fond of saying. "One person to paint it, and the other to say 'stop.'"

With both sons attending college in San Diego, Gail and Randy left Mexico in 1986, and moved to Santa Fe. Within a year, Gail discovered monotypes, recognizing instantly that this was her medium. The opportunity for spontaneity, surprise and variety, the sensuousness of the inks, and the one-of-a-kind nature of the work all appealed to her. She juried into the Santa Fe Society of Artists and the Artists' Gallery (a long-established co-op), and decided that henceforth she would represent herself.

During the next seven years, Gail showed in as many local juried shows as she could, the Artist's Gallery lost its lease and closed, and Randy became more involved in the art as her career took off. They began to practice Iyengar Yoga and bought a home, almost half of which became the studio. A few times a year, when school holidays permitted, Gail exhibited out-of-state.

Things changed dramatically when Randy left teaching in 1993, and began working with Gail full-time. Now they could travel more and further, doing shows throughout the year. They bought their own press, and Randy became her printer. Gail paints virtually every day she's home. More thoroughly than ever, art is her life: a destiny she has built for herself, persistently, unerringly, since her early youth.