CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Artist Michael Gadlin’s advice for creating abstract, award-winning art is simple: Enter every canvas as if you’ve just found materials to work with, or discovered paint, for the first time.
The Denver-based creator shared this philosophy and his artistic journey today with Laramie County Community College members during the opening reception of “Urban Jungle.”
The event took place at LCCC in the Surbrugg/Prentice Auditorium, where Gadlin’s abstract art exhibit is currently on display.
Growing up in the ’80s with a single mother and having limited entertainment options in Colorado, Gadlin said creativity was the one thing that was always accessible to him.
“I was always making and drawing and experimenting with materials pretty much my whole life,” he told audience members.
It wasn’t until Gadlin attended the Pratt Institute in New York that he began to seriously consider becoming a full-time artist.
“If I couldn’t travel abroad, I knew I would want to be in New York, the art mecca of our country,” he said. “That’s where I felt I really cut my teeth to get in the gallery game and to be an artist.”
Gadlin’s early work focused on creating realistic paintings and mimicking objects and people “exactly as they were.” However, after seeing Cy Twimbly’s abstract painting “Ferragosto” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he was inspired to pursue a more abstract art style.
“I remember seeing this and thinking, ‘Oh my God, I am way overthinking this,'” he said. “The painting intrigued me to understand it, and why.”
Gadlin felt he always had a “knack” for expressing himself in art and “going with his gut” when it came to creating. He decided it was time to embrace those feelings and channel them into his future work.
“I think there’s an honesty and an interest in learning about yourself and how you can make that problem work in your painting,” he said.
Over the next decade, Gadlin would incorporate raw emotion and spontaneous art techniques into his mixed-media designs and paintings. The results would eventually grant him notoriety in the Denver art scene.
In 1999, Gadlin was the youngest artist ever to win Best of Show at Denver’s nationally renowned Cherry Creek Arts Festival. His public art installation, commissioned by the City of Denver in 2004, hangs permanently in the city’s District 2 Police Station.
The Vance Kirkland Museum acquired a work of his as part of its permanent collection, and the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art selected Gadlin to be included in the museum’s Rocky Mountain Biennial.
LCCC art instructor Daniel Maw, who had invited Gadlin to feature “Urban Jungle,” said the reception was a great opportunity for art students to learn more about the industry.
“Every opening reception day is a special day in my book,” Maw said during the reception. “It warms my heart to see my students working with [Gadlin] and talking with him at the gallery.”
“Urban Jungle” will be on display at the gallery until March 1 and is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday – Friday.
