In the weeks leading up to the opening of American Idolatry on October 29, we are interviewing the artists to learn more about their work.

Lizzie Gill
Port Chester, New York

Lizzie Gill recently graduated with a BS in Fine Art from Skidmore College. Her concentrations include oil painting, mixed media drawing and medium format film photography. She recently opened a studio/gallery in Port Chester, New York, where she continues to pursue the concept of appropriation and her interest in acknowledging the past through its visual incorporation into the present.

“I Don’t See Me In Your Eyes Anymore,” Mixed media, including collage, 23K gold leaf, aluminum screen, dollhouse furniture (2011)

Q: Tell us about your project for American Idolatry.
A: This project, for me, explores the malleability of idolatry. I consider my work reliquaries, in the sense that I deem these “false idols” fit for worship – anyone can create an idol. Reliquaries were deemed so by oral tradition, void of factuality, these are the saint’s bones, thus fit for veneration. The ceremonial aspect of religion, for me, is theatrical, resonating with the social roles of women during the 50s – the dress, the social interactions all seems meticulously staged.

Q: What is your creative background? How have you arrived at your current medium?
A: I recently graduated from Skidmore College with a BS in Fine Art. With advanced practices in several studio areas under my belt, my mixed media work is a culmination of multiple problem solving approaches to an idea.

Q: Has the recession impacted your art?
A: It has made it stronger, forcing me to focus, both financially and mentally, on my art.

Q: In your experience, do hard economic times hurt or help art?
A: Helps viewership, hurts the market. Art provides both an escape and a reminder of what we’ve overcome in the past, a reiteration we need in these times. But, people are less willing to part with their disposable income, which doesn’t help the market, but I find Recession Art’s incentive to find a medium progressive.

Q: In what way does the role of “American Idolatry” play out in your own life?
A: Twitter.

Q: How does memorializing or ceremony work into your practice?
A: Ceremony plays to both the conceptual and physical aspects of the work. I utilize gold leafing techniques to echo a monk’s work on an illuminated manuscript, because the slow and precious process both memorializes and glorifies a time gone by.

Q: What do you want the audience to take away from your work? What do you take away from it?
A: As long as I’ve got their attention, a scratch on the head and perhaps a laugh will suffice. From my work, I take away the notion of obsession, one person’s desire to glorify something that may have otherwise gone over looked.

Visit Lizzie Gill’s website.

American Idolatry will show October 29 to November 6 at the Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn.