Gemma Gambee Lewis
In this mark-making work I experience a sense of sacredness within myself when my brush or pencil touches the paper. There is a sacred intimacy and a raw sense of being that I hope others are able to see and feel. Since I was a very young person I found a similar feeling in prayer and in drawing. It’s that space in myself that these marks come from. It's void of the inner critic and there is a deep sense of continuous peace.
Motherhood has focused my work with a sense of swiftness. An unapologetic sense of prioritizing has dominated my thought process since becoming a mother of 2 tiny children. Time and space has shifted away from my priorities to the needs and desires of my children. The moments I do take for mark-marking become so precious that there is nothing other than the brush, paper and pure agency.
Since my first visit to Litchfield Co. in 2000, I’ve dreamed of living here and painting here. There is something about the light, vistas and peace that connects me deeper to my desires to create.
These marks first started while at The School of Art Institute of Chicago. Some of my work was screen printing on paper. The work was of factories I would visit in Chicago and my hometown, Buffalo, NY. I started to make “marks” on the walls of the structures. It was interesting to me that my professor’s main interest was those marks and not of the hand drawn buildings. He wanted to see more and wanted me to explore making those “marks.” It took me about 15 years and a serious meditation practice to revisit them. Seems now like they were waiting to surface.