Home Page
Who We Are
What We Do
Join Us
Registry
Join the Registry
Resources & Partners
Keep in Touch
Return to the Registry
Interview: Gail DomanskiSeptember 19, 2005
1. How long have you been a resident in Siskiyou County and What brought you here?
I have been here since 1987 with some breaks of a year or so here and there; I came here to work for the Forest Service in wildland fire suppression.
2. Can you give a short explanation of your specialty or your artistic medium?
I am currently a painter in oils, acrylics, watercolor, pastel and other drawing media.
3. How long have you been making art (professionally and unprofessionally)?
I started drawing on any blank surface at the age of three and was very busy experimenting with different media until about 18, when I was informed by my Father that I didn't have what it would take to be an artist, and I should get a real profession. In my Forest Service career I did occasional art works and took some art classes along the way. I feel that I have only begun to get back on track in the past few years.
4. Is art your full time career?
I am a full time Mother of two children: two and five. I have two days a week to work part-time in Art.
5. How have you learned your art? Have you had any formal art education? If so, where, when and for how long?
My Father would bring home art materials and let me go with them. He was very encouraging (conversely) and I taught myself by experimentation. I had some watercolor lessons from my Grandmother who was very inspiring. High School art was more discouraging than helpful! I took a few community college classes...the first significant class was a pastel class from Ann Kincaide in 1990. From that point I took some painting and art history classes from Ron Richards who taught me how to make the paint work for me in terms of both color and application.
6. Have you had any special mentors that have influenced you and your style?
I have admired Ann Kincaide's very creative work and her relaxed attitude in experimenting with materials and possibilities. She is such a great teacher, so encouraging. I love her. I enjoyed classes with Ron Richards as well. His teaching of painting was rich with Art History lessons, so that I learned of some of the classic methods of painting. I admire the pastel work of Ronnie Marsh and Wilo Balfrey and would like to do more in pastel.
7. Do you feel like living in Siskiyou County has influenced your art? What aspects have you drawn inspiration from?
I grew up in Ohio where most of the natural world has been totally changed by man. I came to Siskiyou County from the mountains of Arizona, which I thought could not be rivaled in beauty...but I was wrong. This place is inspiration for color and light, and the power of form in Nature.
8. Are there any other things you would like people to know about the relationship between your art and the place that you live?
Here...the land dominates. We do not overrun nature here, though we have changed things, there are still many wild places for bear and cougar to live as they were meant to live. That is important to me. As there are endless places to explore, there are places to paint.
9. If you had to describe your style in a few words how would you do this?
Colorist, sculptural strokes, lighting effects, passionate, spiritual.
10. What is it about making art and the creative process that you find most interesting or are most passionate about?
I lose my sense of time passing and I am absorbed into the process of creating. What I create when I am unattached to the outcome is so much more free, inspired and beautiful. I feel a relationship with my subject when I draw or paint that was not immediately apparent before I began. My art opens my heart to connect with what I see in a sense of reverence.
11. How is this apparent in your work if at all?
When the painting is finished and I see a depth of surreal color and atmosphere in a totally believable representational landscape or portrait, I have looked into the person or scene with love, connectedness, and joy. The way I painted that subject is my prayer, celebration and reverence of it.
12. Do you have one particularly interesting story about your adventures as an artist? The most unusual work you've done, the hardest work, the most interesting commission, celebrities you’ve worked with, your biggest success story or biggest failure, or your earliest memory of making art.
I was on a hot shot (fire) crew in Colorado one year and I painted a mural on the wall of the Hot Shot office. The scene was absolutely from my imagination. It took two weeks to create and it depicted a crew working at night under a full moon with torching trees, valley smoke and the beautiful effects of light. It was one painting where the outcome surprised me the most.