HISTORY

GILES GILSON HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

ABOUT
GALLERY
INSTRUCTION
CONTACT
NEWS
LINKS
HOME

“I’ve found that manmade devices often have the same forms and shapes as biological entities,” the artist explains of his dual interests.  “This is because the shapes are necessary to the function.”

Although Gilson’s works might suggest aerodynamic principles or have complex mechanics, their function is purely philosophical – to transmit the artist’s experiences in a manner that challenges preconceptions and creates an emotional response in the viewer.

According to his formal biography, Giles Gilson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1942, in the front seat of a 1933 Ford.  Gilson’s father was a tool and die maker who did auto repair and body work on the side for extra money.  He was also a pilot who had grown up on a farm, learning how to repair and, if need be, build the things he needed.

“I became interested in aircraft and automobiles because of his influence,” Gilson says.  “He started flying when ‘aeroplanes’ had only been around for a few years and the headlights on his Stutz were lit by kerosene.”

Gilson became involved in industrial design and engineering at an early age, and they remain major influences on his artwork.

“My father started teaching me to fly airplanes and drive cars when I was about 9 years old and I spent lots of time helping him fix things,” the artist recalls.   “These influences got me started in learning all I could about how things worked and I built what ever I could, because I didn’t have the money to buy these things.   So if I wanted something, I had to find a way to build it. I was into hot rods, and vintage cars. I learned how to repair and build cars, but my curiosity didn’t end there.   I read everything I could find about auto design, hotrod technology, aircraft design and aerodynamic principles.”

The artist has long been fascinated with ascending spirals and remembers drawing them as a child.  Years later, the rolling and twisting path of wings in flight maneuvers captivated him, and works such as Ribbon Vase, Inner Springs and Lighting The Way make clear how these fascinations later manifested themselves in his work.

Gilson’s father preferred practicality over fashion and knowledge over certification, in the interest of what worked best.

“I think I may have some of that from him,” Gilson says in regard to his lack of concern with accepted notions and appropriate practices.  In fact, if there has been one aspect of Gilson’s work that has stood out over the years, it has been his penchant for breaking rules and challenging the status quo.

Having gained prominence as a woodturner, Gilson rejected the limitations of conformity and began painting over the wood, shocking many in the field.  Initially scolded by collectors and dropped by galleries, he is now considered the greatest influence on the painterly explorations of a number of leading wood artists.  Gilson further frustrated his critics by creating work that was neither made of wood or lathe turned for exhibitions of turned wood objects.  His Fiber Vases from the late 1980s showcase the weave of Fiberglas using pearlescent colors, while exploring the relationships between ancient tradition and modern technology.  These beautiful works sent reverberations through the woodturning community, causing the artist to be viewed with some amount of suspicion for his audacious individuality.

While preparing for his own commercial pilot’s license, Gilson felt it was important to fly and understand historical aircraft.  He found someone who had vintage biplanes for rent and spent many hours flying them. The artist feels that the experience was invaluable because it gave him the real sense of the adventure that helps a person gain confidence and character. At this time, he also designed colors for airplanes, and worked closely with builders of experimental class aircraft.  These experiences continue to inform the artist’s work.

Giles Gilson’s exposure to the fine arts began in childhood, as his mother painted and wrote poetry and his sister also painted and studied sculpture. He was exposed to the power of music early on, as his brother was a musician and attended Julliard School of Music.  The influence of industrial and automotive design, the fine arts and music became intertwined at an early age.

“I started learning how to play Sax when I was about 12, and my first teacher made sure that I learned how to listen,” Gilson says of the experience.   “I became very interested in Bebop, which requires the musician to pay attention to every other musician in the group, and to respond.”  

Due to his brother’s influence, Gilson studied music theory, and arranging. Years later, he embraced a love for the blues, a style of music that intriguingly takes its name from a color the artist often employs.  Although the importance of music is apparent in works such early works as Treble Clef Relating to a Cube, the majority of Gilson’s works serve to translate aural dynamics and tonal relationships into visual compositions.

Throughout his teens, Gilson studied fine arts with one of the teachers in the school system who acted as mentor.

“My teacher was very good at her job,” he recalls.   “She would lecture on a certain master’s technique and I had to learn the technique and use it.   She would spend time teaching us how to see.”

For Gilson this experience was similar to the music teacher’s insistence on learning how to listen.

“I learned how to use colors, the importance of knowing how to compose the work, the importance of motion and how to add depth and feelings of distance,” Gilson recalls.  “I was required to study and do ‘minute sketches, where I had one minute to capture the essence of a model on paper.  I did life studies, and landscapes…and learned to work with water, oil and pastel.”

Gilson came to know others who were artists or very much interested in fine arts and spent a great deal of time at the Philadelphia Art Museum and on trips to the art museums of New York City.  He took wood and metal shop courses in Junior High School and High School, where he learned to spin metal and turn wood.   The impact of visiting art museums and his fascination with cars became synergistically linked, leading him to experiment with processes that connected the two.

“We used to make parts for our cars,” he recalls.   “I often made sculptural objects in these shops as well.”

The impact of car design is evident as Gilson lists famed car designers Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and George Barris, as two major influences on his work.

The use of polished aluminum and stainless steel in works such as Wobbledancer and Stratus grew directly out of experiences in metal shop and his love of “hot rod design” led him to stylize everything from his 1979 Padouk Rocker to the recent Fantasy Unleashed.

Gilson began to build mobiles while still in high school. These initial experiments would lead him to create a number of oversized stabiles and mobiles in the late 1970s.  Of these Stratus and Cirrus from the Cloud Series are particularly impressive.  Each is a large, sculptural statement, with the laminated wood forms balanced above each other rather than beneath.  Gilson had never seen this done before and embraced the challenge of creating the illusion of objects suspended in air.

Although he had learned a little about the turning process from being around his father, high school shop class gave him the opportunity for hands on experience. The artist was fortunate that his teachers let those who showed ability work on their own projects, rather than assignments.  Latitude to work in this manner gave the artist the independent spirit that he continues to enjoy. 

As a teenager, Gilson embarked on a series of jobs that expanded his understanding of the world and stimulated his creativity.

“I drove taxis, worked in factories, repaired autos, flew airplanes, played music, created paintings and did some graphic art work on the side,” Gilson says.  “These jobs helped me keep going while I explored my various interests. They also helped me pay off the cost of getting my commercial pilot’s ratings.”

“I learned a lot from the places I worked,” he explains.  “I also read and studied on my own.   One thing that kept happening is that through all this time, I kept finding myself making sculptural objects… carving things from wood and sometimes from plastic or metal.”

When Gilson was in his twenties, he studied theater with a professional from New York City for eight years.  His passion for theatre continues to inform his art.

“This person was a major influence on me,” Gilson says.   “He worked hard to get me to open up as he put it. His genius had a lot to do with how my ideas would come together in my future artwork.”

This opening up in relation to theatre required an ability to feel that mirrored the experience of learning to hear and see. Ultimately the experience of learning the languages of music, art and theatre had a tremendous impact upon his ability to communicate through his work.  These experiences also helped him to develop the courage to freely express himself.

During these years, Gilson took side jobs in the graphic arts; an experience that, combined with doing color designs on experimental aircraft, would later lead to his Graphic Series.  His experience in product design and development is a major influence on his work, as he has built numerous industrial models and prototypes. He worked in the field of advertising and product promotion, where he was required to solve problems quickly, and find ways to create illusions for the camera.  To accomplish this, he found that he had to devise immediate solutions, using whatever would work.  He remembers spending countless hours in toy stores and junkyards, as sources for parts  and inspiration.

For Gilson, the creation of illusion and sharing emotion through form and color are closely related.  It is life itself however, that has had the greatest impact on his work.

“Women have always been a strong influence,” he offers when discussing his vessel forms. A series of Necklace Vases created in the late1980s clearly illustrate how the artist relates the vessel and female form.

“I find it a wonderful challenge to transform a turned object into a personality,” Gilson says.

The artist further explored this potential in the Cammy-Oh Series, which was influenced by a woman who waited tables at his favorite diner.  The vessels in this series had openings suggestive of curled leather collars and culminated in a stunning life-sized work.

It is not surprising that the opposite sex is responsible for the artist’s entry into the field of craft art.  While feeling “kind of down and out” in the 1970s, he moved to upstate New York to live with a woman.  Finding a job to pay the bills, he set up shop in a barn with the intention of “making stuff to sell”.

“I went to the best craft fair there was at the time, which was within a two hour drive of my home,” Gilson recalls.  “I realized that I could make anything I saw there at least as well, if not better.   So I did.”  

Early works made it clear that Giles Gilson was an artist to be reckoned with.  Vassal, a chess table sculpture from 1977, combines function and statement

“I wanted to speak of subservience,” Gilson explains of the work.  “The antithesis of being who you really are.”

Padouk Rocker, created two years later, utilizes dynamics and motion in a chair that was designed to be both comfortable and collapsible for ease of storage.

“I began the search for tools and equipment, as well as other folks who did these things, and found this guy named Mel,” Gilson recalls.  “He was doing these turned pieces from rotten wood and they were wonderful. I had always liked burl and highly figured wood, but I hadn’t seen anything made from rotted material - probably because his work wasn’t widely known back then.”

The man who Gilson had become acquainted with was Mel Lindquist, a pioneer in the field of contemporary woodturning who passed away in 2000 at the age of 89.  

“Mel and I became good friends,” Gilson continues.  “We spent a lot of time together hangin’ out by the wood stove that I put in the barn.  He was like a father and a peer to me. I miss him.”

The work of Mel Lindquist and his son Mark were major influences on Gilson’s work. The Maker, a work that speaks of the artistic process, is a tribute to Mel Lindquist.  The work consists of six images, illustrating creation from vision to completion.

“It’s about all of us,” says the artist.  “It’s about what we do and who we are.”

The work is from a series of Picture Pieces by the artist that offered a means of communicating his interests and emotions.  While the artist’s wide-ranging work challenges the viewer to find personal significance in his use of form and color, these examples represent his most direct use of narrative.  Utilizing the labor-intensive process of segmentation years before other woodturners, Gilson constructed vessel forms that use the color of contrasting woods to present a series of symbolic images.  While he first employed this process in the early 1970s, he continues to revisit the technique in combination with more recent forms and approaches.

Giles Gilson’s influences range from the genius of Leonardo Di Vinci to the sculpture of Rodin, Brancusi and Alexander Calder.  Paintings by Rene Magritte, graphic works by M.C. Escher and the writings of Aldous Huxley all contribute to the artist’s explorations.  Among those who work in wood, he has an appreciation for Wharton Esherick, as well as the work of contemporaries such as Steve Madsen.  Other artists that made an impression have come and gone from the scene, including the sculptor Igor Givetovski.

When asked about other influences on his work, Giles Gilson adds: “mysterious things.”

“I have asked philosophical questions as long as I can remember,” he says.  “I often find that this quest influences the work in subtle - and sometimes not so subtle - ways.”

In the early 1990s, the artist began creating a series of mechanical devices as part of the Wobbly Wizard Series.

“A girlfriend once called me the Wobbly Wizard because I’m kind of wobbly in the morning,” Gilson says of the inspiration behind the works. “I figured that this wizard needed some lab instruments…”

This led to the artist’s Gravity Bottle which has the dubious function of containing mass, while doubling as a gravity detector.  Another work from the series was designed to always point toward ‘spiritual north’.

Gilson moves easily between deep emotional responses and embracing the absurd.  A case in point is The Sledge Hammer Bowlophone, which he says is played by striking it with a sledgehammer.  Like many of the artist’s works, it employs chance and accident as a means of exploring the potential of the unexpected.

“I was turning a spherical form on the lathe and the New Editor of Fine Woodworking Magazine came through the door,” Gilson recalls.  “The dog bit him and I broke through the sphere.  As a means of using this flaw, I created the piece.”

In a similar manner, Come With Me was created out of a goblet that he was turning for a film.  When the Director upset him, Gilson broke the goblet.  The resulting work is no doubt stronger than what he had originally intended to make. 

“It’s about the adventure,” Gilson offers.  “It’s about the dynamics of lovers. It’s about picking up the pieces.”

For Giles Gilson, imagination, creativity and process not only overlap in the creation of work, but are also intrinsically linked.

“Imagination is the ability to dream,” he says.   “To fantasize. To visualize and create sequences of events in the realm of thought.”

He believes that there are two aspects of process.  

“There’s the human process… the sequence of emotional and intellectual events a person experiences as a result of a set of circumstances,” he offers and then adds: “Building a piece is a set of circumstances.”

The second aspect of process concerns the sequence of technical events and work necessary to make the piece.  

“I have found that my process - the sequence of emotional events that I go through in creating a piece - has many levels,” Gilson explains.  “Some of the triggers for these events can be traced to very early childhood.   Many of them can be traced to more recent experiences.   Because I’ve had so many experiences in the past that can best be described as bizarre, I have long felt that it is important to include a sense of the ridiculous.  Yet, when I’m doing a piece, I must be careful not to clutter a work with this.  I use the absurd elements when they bring something to the final work.” 

“All of the choices I make in the design of a work will be influenced by the circumstances around me,” Gilson offers.  “These include both current perception and emotion and the culmination of past experience.”

-Kevin Wallace