About Gillian Schultze, Artist and Human and NOT Perfect

Written by: Gillian Schultze | Photo Credit: Gerry Kingsley

I thought it might be nice to tell you a little more about why I do what I do.

I have been learning to be artist for most of my life, but have only found the confidence to formally call myself one in the last few years.  I actually think it has been a life lived that has brought me to this point in my life where I have found the freedom to let my emotions pour into my art.  

I have actually only recently found my niche in using textile and thread, paint and canvas to transpose my imagination onto fabric . For years I struggled .  My challenge was always that I wanted everything I created to be perfect – a vision of what I had in my mind’s eye.  But every piece I did was never perfect and so I did not persevere.

Parallel this with my life.  As a young woman I had a vision of what my life would look like.  I bet you guessed that it did not turn out as I had envisioned.  Sprinkle in a failed marriage, many challenges with my teenagers, and most recently, losing my director’s job in an unfortunate mass layoff.  I did not envision a second marriage or being forced to reevaluate my retirement plan, but here is where it gets good.  The second marriage – the unexpected – the full-time art career I am embarking on is incredible.

I happened upon textile art and mixed media when I finally let go of the outcome.  It is impossible to be perfect with a thread and needle.  I let my sewing machine find its way in stitches.  I now let the material and colour find their way to my canvases.  I’m not even tied to the outcome of my life.  

My art now is less conservative, more free.  I am an interpretive artist.  I no longer expect a specific outcome.  In fact, I now like not knowing what the outcome will be, and I definitely don’t plan it  I have learned that the best reward is  waiting if I enjoy the process. 

Textile art has allowed her to morph many of the mediums she has dappled in over the years (theatre, poetry, painting, interior decorating, henna tattooing) into abstract and realistic depictions of nature. This is where the adventure r part comes in.  But perhaps I should save that for another journal post.