Pollinator: Ursula Gullow
Ursula Gullow
The role of artist now defines not the objects that are made, but the way life is navigated. The concept of art can be really intimidating to people and when we look at it as a way of life, a way of living, it’s more accessible.
–Ursula Gullow
And Ursula has done her part in our community to make art more accessible, taking on Art Seen Asheville, a URTV-based show that focuses on highlighting area artists. “Needles,” below, is one of my favorite episodes, where she highlights a tattoo artist, a book artist and DJ.
PA: Why did you create Art Seen Asheville?
I started ASA to highlight a new aesthetic in Asheville. To learn video production techniques. To enhance discussion around the arts in Asheville. Wanted to encourage critical thinking around the arts.
To highlight artists worthy of recognition whose work is amazing but had not been given much attention. To create something entertaining and informative around a subject that is important to me. The venue of public access TV can reach of audience that may not typically engage in the arts.
In the process of taking on this unpaid project, as well as painting, working at Malaprop’s and Bobo, Ursula has had to rethink modes of survival…artistically.
“I feel like everyone’s an artist, like Joseph Bueys. But being creative and resourceful in coming up with new methods and…more sustainable, more flexible, more ways of thinking about survival, which I think ultimately is the most revolutionary thing. We are redefining labels and roles.”
PA: How is the recession affecting art in Asheville?
I don’t know. I’m hoping that people are experimenting more, collaborating more, doing more one-time performances, being less attached to the idea of an object, becoming more creative with making ends meet, rather than just selling objects. Many people are selling less.
PA: Do you feel you’ve expanded as an artist in this recession?
I feel like my life as an artist has expanded. I’m taking more risks as a painter because I’ve taken the pressure off myself to sell my work to make money. Though it would be great to, I’m not expecting to make money off my work like I used to. I’ve opened myself up to different avenues of making an income. Letting go of the concept of making money from paintings has opened me up to video and writing, not looking for one single thing that’s going to generate all the income.
With painting, I’m more interested in what I’m making, solving certain problems for myself. It’s also changing the format that my paintings take. I don’t want to be creating objects for commodity as much anymore. [hesitant sigh]
Ursula recently did an organic painting that she cut up into grid-like pieces and sold them separately. Initially, she did this so that the painting would fit in her suitcase as she traveled to the Seattle art show where it would hang. Then, as she went through the process of cutting the painting, the fuller meaning emerged.
“It speaks to the severing of self. The mural was a piece about the city activity, but cutting this very organic painting into this very exact grid–it’s about the severing of our communities.”
Do you think of yourself as a pollinator?
I did which spirit animal are you quiz and I’m a humming bird. I’ve never thought of myself like that, but I think that we all are on a certain level, whether we like it or not. We do this with our ideas and conversations and interactions with everyone.
In terms of what has pollinated me [that’s getting dirty!] …there’s so much, definitely having my studio in a new place in the River Arts District, meeting people that I can bounce ideas off of, recently did 48 Film Project—working with a group and collaborating was awesome. Mostly just the other artists I meet and how they’re doing it; how they’re approaching their work and how they’re surviving…I keep saying surviving as if we’re really on the brink of something.
I think being more challenged in terms of finances have spurred me to think about things: ways of navigating life differently.
I LOVE blogging. When I started doing that last fall, it’s a feeling of “I can do whatever I want.” It’s a whole different outlet of my take on the art world.
Art Seen Asheville, “Needles”
Ursula’s comment about challenging finances spurring her to look at other ways to navigate life struck a chord. We’ve been brought up to think we have to make our living doing one thing. The recession, ‘though, has launched a new style of entrepreneur: the individual who creates a life and makes a living from putting together various creative activities.
One of my friends plays in a band, makes and sells textile art, teaches screenprinting, and tends bar a couple of evenings a week. She does this partly by necessity, but mostly by choice, since she wanted a lifestyle that didn’t require a 9-to-5 job. As Ursula says, sometimes when we let go of the expectations that something has to be a certain way, new avenues open that we may not have considered, and that interest and excite us.