| Gail’s aesthetic sensibility
developed during the heyday of Abstract Expressionism, and
her formal training occurred during its penumbra. With their
daring and immediacy, these painters had the greatest impact
on her. They freed the artist from having to represent the
world of things and opened in its place spiritual and emotive
dimensions never seen before. The artist’s job was to
paint not the surface, but the interior of things—and
most of all, the interior of the artist. With their vigorous
brushstrokes, drippings and splats, Abstract Expressionists
made the act of painting the subtext (at the very least) of
everything they did. Time became the subject of a medium which
until then had always been purely spatial, and therefore a-temporal.
Just as important to the formation of Gail’s sensibility
and character as a contemporary artist is the influence of
nearly two decades of Graham-inspired modern dance. Movement
as the embodiment of emotion and the means of personal expression,
and the artist as conduit of experiences beyond the limited
reach of words: these principles are woven into the fabric
of Gail’s artistic vision.
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