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About Muffy Clark Gill
I've been creating art since I was a young child. The pivotal moment in my life came during a visit to Kampala, Uganda, East Africa when I was in high school. I was taken to an art gallery by a friend and introduced to an exhibition featuring art created in the wax and dye resist painting process known as batik. I was hooked on the results and returned to the US to experiment with this unique art form. My first paintings were crude but I won a Scholastic Art Award for a simple batik I had done painting an elephant!
From there I attended Morris County, N.J. Vocational/Technical School where I studied Commercial Art. I augmented those skills by attending Boston University where I was classically trained as an artist and then went on to study Graphic Design and Marketing. Over the years I have won numerous state and national awards and have been featured in both international and local publications in print and online. My work has been shown in numerous museums and galleries and on display in the 22nd Floor Art Gallery of the Florida State Capital building in Tallahassee, Florida. I have artwork in the collections of public institutions including colleges, museums, and courthouses including: the office of the Florida Secretary of State, the Marco Island Historical Museum, Florida Gulf Coast University,and the Volusia County, Florida Courthouse.
Here is a recent video about me and my art process
Inspiration
My love of travel and curiosity about cultures has taken me to many
places around the world including: Myanmar, Indonesia, Cuba, Alaska, Singapore, Korea, the
Caribbean, and a 17 day stay in Japan to learn the
processes of indigo dying, shibori resist, and katazome stenciling.
These trips have provided a great resource library from which to create
my artwork.
Techniques
My subject matter is gleaned from over 56,000 photographs that I have taken over the years. Those photographs are then translated into paintings using resist dying, collage, or painting.
When starting a painting I paint hot wax and Japanese Kimono dyes onto silk fabric using the Japanese wax resist process known as rozome (row-zo-may). The layers of wax and dye are used to save color in areas that I want to keep a specific color. When I have covered all of the areas I want to save, I then remove all of the wax by ironing. To set the dye so that they will be permanent, the painting is then steamed and rinsed to remove excess dye. The finished painting is then stretched for framing.
career highlights
Having my three paintings featuring modern Marco Island History on permanent display on the exterior of the Marco Island Historical Museum, Marco Island, Florida as a part of the "Windows and Doors to History" project
A solo exhibition in the 22nd floor art gallery in the Florida State Capital in Tallahassee, Florida with two paintings remaining on permanent loan to the office of the Florida Secretary of State.
Having my batik painting:"Everglades Encounter" selected as one of the "Top 100" paintings in the 1997 National Arts for the Parks Exhibition
My art business has been designated as a "Trusted Art Seller" with The Art Storefronts Organization, which means you can shop with confidence, and know that I stand behind the quality and value of my products.
