I paint to find the core connections I feel to my environment and the people who challenge and inspire me.
I paint to find and celebrate the beauty and essence of life, no matter how joyful or difficult the subject.
Color grounds me by helping me define a story, express emotions or create a place in which experiences can stand. Through the use of water-based oils and acrylics, on both canvas and wood panels, I can manipulate the layers and texture to complement the mood the colors provide. Not only are brushes, blades and my fingertips my tools, but a water bottle in hand gives me the opportunity to push and pull the layers so that the colors can have a conversation and work together.
Most often, my paintings evolve into abstract landscapes allowing me to connect with the living canvas I imagine we all share. I tend to have a vision for the piece I am working on, but I remain open to the process to see where the paints take me. I adore creating skies, water and open spaces because I am drawn to the horizon line. It reminds me to explore where I am now, as well as to be curious about what lies ahead and remember where I’ve been. In recent years, that horizon line has become my “red thread” from the Chinese legend, the Red Thread of Fate.
An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet; regardless of time, place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break.
I became aware of this legend at a memorial for a friend and her three girls. Their deaths brought my painting off the sidelines to the center of my life; I didn’t have the words to express my heartbreak, but my paints did. Since then, I either begin or end with a “red thread” in my work. My paintings attempt to express those connections we make with each other through color, light and energy on the canvas. Textures and brushstrokes create recognizable images, but those forms are often ethereal–like smoke, clouds or distant mountain ranges. As in human relationships, we might see or feel differently each time we look.
I have found that the value of painting is not only this process in which I feel so alive and at peace at the same time, but also in the relationships with those who see the works. I paint to make connections with my journey. I paint to make connections with others.
* If interested, please come see me at my studio. Just give me a call 970 391 8489 or send me an email, c2giglio@gmail.com
Coming up…..
Red Threads Art Show, “Overlap” – Kreuser Gallery, Colorado Springs, CO Opening October 2nd, 2020
Education
Lynchburg College- BFAof Fine Art, 1994
Ritin’s Studio, Fresco and Old World Techniques, Toronto, 1999, 2001
Commissions- Private Homes, Slater Run Vineyards, Pateros Creek, Laughing Buck Farm
Of Note
Red Threads, “Unraveled”, Kreuser Gallery, Colorado Springs, CO October, 2018
Higher Love, G44 Gallery, Colorado Springs, CO Opening February 24th, 2017
Art of the Piedmont, Middleburg, Va -February 2017
Governor’s Art Show, Loveland, CO Opening April 28th, 2017
*Galvanize Solo Exhibition, Galvanize, Fort Collins, CO Oct- December 2016
*Unraveled, Red Threads 2016, Krueser Gallery, Colorado Springs, CO April 2016
*Art of the Piedmont, Middleburg, VA February 2016
*Galvanize Solo Exhibition, Galvanize, Fort Collins, CO October and November 2015
*ELEMENTS, Creative Community Center, Fort Collins, September 2015
*65 Roses for Cystic Fibrosis, Independence Gallery, Loveland, CO Feb 2015
*Off the Hook: at the intersection of music and ideas, Fort Collins, CO June 2015
*Fort Collins Studio Tour, Fort Collins, CO 2014, 2015
*Red Threads, Create, Connect, Community, Soiree, Colorado Springs, Co January- March 2015
*Spontaneity, The Art of Friendship. Crankenstein, Fort Collins, CO November 2014
*Horizons for Hope, Solo Show, Everyday Joe’s, October 2014
* French Nest Open Air Artisan Market, Fort Collins, CO Summer 2014
*Streetmosphere, Fort Collins, CO – Summer 2014
*Metamorphosis, Gallery Bleu, Fort Collins April – May 2014 with Valerie Savarie
*Women’s Works, International Juried Show- Woodstock, IL March, 2014
*Breath of Life Gala, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation- Commissioned work for honorary gift – November 2013
* Arts Incubator of the Rockies, AIR, Curriculum Committee and volunteer, January 2012 – November 2013.
*Featured Artist, Frameworks Gallery, Colorado Springs, CO – 2010
*Articulation, Group Show, Colorado Springs, CO – 2009
*Daura Gallery, Lynchburg, VA Permanent Collection 1994
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