We recently connected with Jon Gilchrist and have shared our conversation below.
Jon, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
On one level, it comes from my personal desire to challenge myself – to see for myself if I can scale that mountain. On another level, it comes from a strong desire to honor my Mother. She invested so much in me, and even in her passing, I want to make her proud. I want to make sure her sacrifices weren’t made in vain. On a third level, I look at my resilience as the vehicle that transports me through my changes. And I am infatuated with personal growth.
When I decided to explore creating art in 2016, I lacked any training beyond childhood doodles. My motivation at that point was solely experiential. As I got into creating art, I found that it brought new life into my world. It brought a freshness and vibrancy – it opened my heart and my soul. I loved the way it made me feel, and the way it challenged me to create work that was more engaging. And I found that I thrived in the idea of answering the questions by myself….alone…eye to eye…heart to heart.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I have the pleasure of pursuing both my corporate and my artistic passions: I’m a Partner at EY in our mergers and acquisitions practice, along with being an emerging artist. A chance meeting during the summer between my sophmore and junior years with Don Merriwether on a Southwest flight from Tulsa (where I attended undergrad) to Houston to see my good brother James exposed me to the consulting industry. And even more – an opportunity to work in a space where folks that looked like me could thrive and be successful. That meeting resulting in several outcomes – one of which was an employment offer my senior year at EY in Houston,TX. Fast forward 25 years down many winding roads and experiences and places and people – and I’d achieved the thing I said I wanted to do that very summer I met Don: I’d gotten the call that I made Partner at EY in Houston, TX. My Mother wasn’t physically here for me to call and celebrate with. But, I most certainly did call on her and thank her after I got that call.
Speaking of my Mother – I don’t know that I’d be an artist now if it wasn’t for her. While I was raised to explore my interests in the arts (music, theatre, dance), losing her to cancer on June 14, 2015 sparked a light in me to live life more fully. In 2017 I made my first trip to an art store and purchased my first canvas and brushes and paints. I went home that night and painted my first piece titled “Saturday Morning Biscuits” – a homage to my Mother. The next day I returned to Texas Art Supply to purchase more canvases and supplies. Those moment lead to many more moments, more growth, shows and more shows, and ultimately to representation with Galeria Azur.
I think she’d be super happy for me, super proud of me, and super encouraged that I “heard her” – that I was living more fully.
As an artist, I enjoy creating thought-provoking and captivating works. I like the idea that my work has a sublime nature to it. The composition, the colors, the number of elements, and the title all work together to weave a beautiful and multi-levelled work meant to be consumed across many moments. And when I engage with viewers, I enjoy learning about what they’re getting out of the piece – what resonates with them. I enjoy going as deep as they want to go with the piece. I learn more about the work when I have those exchanges – those moments allow me to appreciate what they’ve experienced in their lives, and how it impacts their outlook.
I had my first solo show (Sooner Series) at Galeria Azur Miami last November. The show was a great experience for me – I met other amazing artists and patrons. I am in the process of creating works for my next solo show entitled “Tides”. Ideally, we’ll do the show this spring at Galeria Azur New York City. The works will be an extension of the Sooner Series, but with a different feel. The format will be smaller, and the work will (hopefully) invoke some great questions viewers will ask themselves about their own journeys and seminal moments.
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?
My artistic journey has been substantially anchored in the following three traits: active listening, active feeling, and constant challenging.
I grew an appreciation for being open to hearing my inner artistic voice and being OK with what it was telling me. Conversations about placement and structure and bending whatever principles to which I was adhering at the time. And when that voice told me to go left when I wanted to go right – I learned to listen and embrace it.
As for active feeling – I became aware of this trait as I learned more about my process. Initially, I was concerned about losing the inspiration. So, I’d do things like carry a notebook with notes and such. As well, I’d rush home the moment I felt the inspiration to create. I realized pretty quickly that I’d not be able to sustain that process – I did have a day job and a life that I wanted to maintain. Simultaneously, I learned that I was able to maintain a connection to the process over several days. I also learned that I could work on multiple works at the same time. I gained a trust in my active feeling through those experiences, and developed a deeper ability to be a vessel for my process – to bring to light what it was telling me.
Constant challenging was born from this mantra I apply to my artistic journey: “What if???”. I have grown artistically largely through the assumption that the work is supposed to evolve. However, I needed to get personal accountability and clarity on how active I wanted to be in that evolution. How much pushing did I really want to do in that? Personally, my best works came from when I was actively questioning myself and my expression.
These three traits have transformed my confidence, and my willingness to be brave in my works. I am fortunate in that I discovered these things about myself early on. And it’s led to an incredibly enriching artistic experience for me. And this is something I would encourage other artists to establish for themselves. Find your voice through whatever your foundational traits are – find your joy in establishing a work ethic that pushes you and tightens up your expression – find your constructs that encourage you to elevate your work so that your individuality blasts through.
Be willing to ball up the paper and start again.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
Given that I have a very engaging and enjoyable professional career, along with some other quality of life bits, I am learning how to be OK with not getting to create art on a canvas every day. I have resolved myself to enjoying the mental and emotional process of exploring my works and my ideas in my mind: looking at them from different angles; challenging my perspectives based on the outcome I’m tuned on; ruminating on shapes and colors and placement. It’s been a really cool experience for me because I am finding new joys in my process, which have come about mainly due to my willingness to ball up the paper and start again.
Contact Info:
- Website: joncgilchrist.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redphxstudio/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jongilchrist/
- Other: https://www.artsy.net/artist/jon-c-gilchrist
https://galeriaazur.art/artist/jon-gilchrist/
