We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gail Kotel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Gail, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
Things were always a little harder for me. Tests, reading, math, everything but making artwork. I had to work twice as hard to get the same grades as my friends. Over time I learned tricks that helped, copying things over and over with really small print, that was my best trick. I would assign answers to images in my mind to call them up during exams. It was later in life, in my mid twenties, while getting my masters in Physical Therapy, and really struggling, that I realized I am dyslexic. It’s not the traditional kind, (I loved to read and still do) but a more rare form where memory is affected and numbers are reversed, words that sound the same and start with the same letter are substituted and black and white thinking makes no sense (ie: multiple choice questions). Learning issues were still relatively unvoiced and alternate thinking models were not yet available. I learned to work extra hard to make the same A my piers could get. I learned to advocate for oral exams in place of multiple choice. I learned to work extremely hard to fit in and do well. My artwork and way of seeing the world through my mind and its peculiar lens is unique. This work ethic has served me well over the years, allowing me to be where I am today.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a 52 y/o native New Yorker, artist, Physical Therapist and Pilates Instructor, now living in Philadelphia PA. As a upcycling portrait artist, my work brings awareness to environmental waste by using found materials that most people overlook and throw away. Other people’s garbage becomes my canvas and I hope to call attention to wasteful packaging with creative artmaking. In a world where there is so much packaging everywhere, especially now with COVID, bubble wrap, takeout containers and plastic are overwhelming the earth. Reframing this waste by having to look through the bubbles or glass to see the portrait gives cause for thought. Like all women, I have spent life being looked at and judged and in turn judging myself. The face behind something creates a barrier for the viewer and plays with the idea of voyeur and voyee. When we look at someone through something, we are forced to actively look and therefore are more aware of our gaze. There is a landscape within a face, planes of color, a million shapes forming a geography full of endless emotions. Everyone has eyes, nose and a mouth, but no two faces are the same, the lives lived are stored in the eyes, mouth and cheekbones. I will never tire of painting portraits, finding my medium in creative, repurposed materials.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
As a young girl I remember my father teaching me that we were boycotting Andy Boy Broccoli. He explained why and what that meant. We went to marches on Washington for various causes and got magazines at home about the environment. This taught me many things that I carry forward in my life and artwork today. My art is all made with upcycled/recycled materials. I combine beauty with social causes.
Growing up in NYC I was exposed to amazing art and artists. It was not uncommon to see Keith Herring, Salvador Dali or Louise Bourgeois within my world of openings, subway rides or art supply shopping. I learned a lot through observing and through participating. When restaurants got hit hard by Covid and there was more waste with all the takeout containers, I created the series #takeoutportraits. The portraits painted on takeout food containers were (and still are) displayed in the restaurants to spark conversations about environmental waste and support establishments that were closed or severely limited to in-person dining due to the pandemic. These qualities of environmentalism, passion for art and determination lead me in all of my endeavors.
My advice is to dig deep and find your story and live it through your art or work.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
Things were hard growing up relatively poor in New York City. Even though all my clothes were hand me downs, and my shoes had holes, we had a lot of fun. My mother would find all the free concerts, dances, gardens, parks and museums to go to – finding beauty and art everywhere for free . Exposing me to art and beauty on a regular basis was instrumental in my development. My parents fostered my growing creativity. I tried out for and got into Music and Art HS and was able to study art everyday. I was encouraged to pursue my art despite it not being a safe financial decision. They encouraged and fostered my artistic growth , continually exposing me to art and artists throughout my youth, allowing me to believe I could be an artist too. Awarded a full merit scholarship, I continued my studies getting a BFA in sculpture and printmaking. Even though I make my money as a physical therapist, I am and always will be an artist.
Contact Info:
- Website: therapeuticpilatespt.com/artwork
- Instagram: @gailkotelartist
- Facebook: gailkotelartist
- Linkedin: Gail S. Kotel
- Other: tick tock: gailtheartist
