Gillian Pokalo

I am both an artist and an art educator and recently moved abroad to Akureyri, Iceland, where I am working to develop art programs that merge my passion for art-making, teaching, and exploring this beautiful world (tourism).  For over a decade I was the art teacher at Plymouth Meeting Friends School, where I taught students in grades PreK through 6. I also taught classes at Main Line Art Center in Haverford, PA, Community Arts in Phoenixville, PA. I have also been a Speedball Demo Artist, where I get to go around and share the gospel of printmaking. When I’m not teaching, I’m working in my studio. My work has been on ABC’s Modern Family”, is in corporate and private collections, and has been shown in galleries and museums both regionally and internationally. Check out my CV for all of that.

Artist Statement

My work is a combination of printmaking, photography, and painting. I use these media to create implied narrative landscapes. I take photographic elements and print-collage them together, attempting to authentically tell the stories and histories of abandoned architecture.  As nature actively reclaims them, these structures stand resiliently as testaments to their history and serve as reminders of the legacies of the people who've left them behind. My work reflects on the ways that man-made architecture is eclipsed by nature, and often nature plays a direct part in the creation of a work of art. I often harvest plants (weeds) from my garden and use them in my work. I'm perpetually enamored by their biodiversity. I work in layers: first, a background painting of a sky-scape I've witnessed, followed by layers of photo screen prints that are developed from my photographic imagery. When I photograph a building, I see it as a design element, a character in the narrative, and the silkscreen is a way of making a mark, much like a paintbrush. In this way, I piece together multiple images in such a way that they unveil the story of a place.