Gail Comes

ARTIST STATEMENT:
        Gail Comes grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in a house filled with jazz musicians, dancers, actors, writers and painters. Her interactions with these people stimulated Gail’s artistic curiosity, but it was the sounds of John Coltrane and the works of Michelangelo, Van Gogh and Francis Bacon that ignited her artistic passions. At the same time, Gail soaked up the sights and sounds of the city and she devoured the comics of Robert Crumb. It was this interplay that inspired her love for drawing. Gail went on to explore the tension and balance between bold colors and abstract forms in the human body and the human face, leading to an unmistakable and strong painting style. Her interest in figurative and portrait painting began early. As a teenager, Gail studied anatomy and life drawing with Gustav Rehberger at the Art Students League. In 1984, she received an award from the Society of Arts & Letters. During the award ceremony, Al Hirschfield  said to her, “Welcome to the world of perpetual unemployment,” then added “But we find a way”. Gail had found her “way” and she has never looked back. The Art Student’s League, Music and Art High School, The Studio School and the Pratt Institute are some of the places Gail studied. She has exhibited here in New York City as well as in Amsterdam, Holland. When asked where does she get her inspiration for the figures and heads her reply was, " I see a body or a face that grabs me and I try to grab it back!".

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