Artist Profile: Adam Gillespie

Gypsy

Artist: Adam Gillespie
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

Website & Blog:
Beat Kids Gallery
Beat Kids Gallery blog

Adam Gillespie’s work is provocative and challenging! If you are currently at work or would prefer not to see images that may disturb you, please take this into account. But you will be missing some extremely interesting works!

Holiday in the Sun

How do you describe your work?
I generally leave that to the viewer, I don’t want to tell anyone what they should be seeing. I want them to interpret it in their own way.

What is your creative process like?
More often than not when I start something new I plan for a few days doing sketches and using proper reference material. If the planning doesn’t go well or I’m just not getting into it, the whole idea is stored away for later. I may pull it out months from then or I may never see it again.

Can Can

If all is well and I decided to turn the idea into something on canvas, I get into a bizarre sort of painting schedule. I start in the early morning and do one layer at a time letting each dry then placing another on top, so on so forth. And that will usually take me well into the afternoon or evening. One thing I definitely dislike is to paint in silence, I have to have the right music the right drinks the right lights and the perfect atmosphere.

Halloween

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current
level of artistry?
I cannot say I have really ever had any formal training and I realize that to some people when an artist says they chose not to go to art college or the like it can sound a bit pretentious and egotistical but that really isn’t the case. I made the decision to learn in other ways, more renegade and more hands on. I think too many people tend to focus on what they think an art degree is, I believe there is too much elitism in the art world.

What inspires you to create?
Life! Everyday life. The hypocrisy of our leaders, what appears to be a quickly developing mind numbing new culture that seems to pride themselves on being lazy and uneducated, the fascist overtones of the classroom & religion, so on. I paint the world through my own eyes, I reflect.

Charade You Are

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
People, they never cease to surprise me. You can use your best judgment to decifer whether that is positive or negative.

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
I’m usually researching something, learning and looking for new opportunities & inspiration.

Smile