Ellen Gallagher's family trade was carpentry. Ultimately, Gallagher became an artist, but the skills she learned as a carpenter helped her progress in her career.
Gallagher works with a variety of media, including paint, advertisements from magazines, penmanship paper, and found materials.
A lot of people say Gallagher's works are about race, but she wants people to look deeper than that in her pieces. Gallagher sees her work as being about identity. No matter how she alters the people in the advertisements, they are still them. The artist Agnes Martin and the writings of Gertrude Stein have also had an influence on Gallagher's pieces.
Many of Gallagher's works are enormous in size. This is where her carpentry skills come in handy as she is the one who builds the structures for her canvases. The way she builds them gives her the ability to sit or stand on them, making it easier for her to work. Repetition is commonplace in Gallagher's pieces as is revision. Gallagher is also drawn to grids and so sometimes organizes her pieces this way. Gallagher may have come from a family of carpenters, but she has surely found her place in the world of art.
Information provided by:
"Ellen Gallagher." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.
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