Life & Work with Gwen A.P.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gwen A.P. 

Hi Gwen, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Gwen A.P. I am a live painter, originally from NY. I got my start live painting with the Disco Biscuits, a band based out of Philadelphia, PA. Marc Brownstein, the bassist, gave me an opportunity to live paint, and that was the beginning of my professional art career. Today, I am a published model, have done art production for a full-length feature film, and performed live with major musicians, orchestras, and at art museums, to name a few. I am a selling artist at Art Basel and most recently exhibited my first solo gallery show entitled Dissonance. 

I grew up in NY. My mother was a single mom, abusive, and by the time I was 13, I was in the system. I bounced around institutions and with different families, and by the time I was in college, I was completely on my own. I got pregnant at 20 and had to put a degree in Elementary Education on hold. By the time my daughter was 3 I started getting back into the music and festival scene I was drawn to in college. 

My husband and I went to Bonnaroo, a large festival in Tennessee. I made a painting of my favorite band’s logo. They had a meet and great. I was not savvy enough to bring the painting with me and instead borrowed a sharpie from the fella behind me and asked the band to sign my bikini body. I said I had a painting and would bring it to the show that night. Sure enough, when I held it up, Brownie motioned to me to throw it up on stage. I couldn’t have known it at that moment that his manager would call and ask me to live paint at their festival, and the following series of events would change the course of my life. 

I did many live paintings with the Disco Biscuits, including a New Year’s Eve run in Time’s Square to a sold-out crowd. I also did album artwork and live paintings with other bands and side projects. During the same breath, I began applying to festivals and vending at gatherings like Bonnaroo and Electric Forest, where I set a up a gallery and create a live painting inspired by the event. I made prints of my art. I have collaborated many times with the Apparel Company Grassroots California. I made skis and snowboards with custom Gwen AP by Gilson. I enjoyed collaborating with the Manitowac Symphony Orchestra on a live performance entitled Brushstrokes. And while I lived in Wisconsin, I live painted many times at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Eventually, I was asked to do the art production for a full-length feature film entitled Impossible Monsters. 

The Impossible Monsters project took more than 3 years from start to finish. It began with a script from an acquaintance who was a scriptwriter from NYC and had just won Panavision’s New Filmmaker Award. He was looking for a collection of art to be a focal point in a phycological thriller he was writing about a twisted artist. He wanted something shocking, something no one had ever seen before; I was in! Through the course of creating his vision, it pushed my art in new exciting directions. I started using my own photography as reference photos. I got larger reams of canvas. Instead of small stretched canvas with acrylic, I was going largescale 8 feet high charcoal and oil. And the portraits he wanted me to paint were purposely meant to be disturbing. Like that train wreck you just can’t look away from. I loved it! And I loved creating monsters so much that I stopped painting acrylic festival art and switched to large-scale gallery monsters. 

My monsters feel true to who I am now. I want to paint the raw and the real. I want to make the viewer a little uncomfortable, or at least force you to think about that dark spot somewhere deep down inside that gnaws at your soul. I had my first solo exhibition this past February with a collection of largescale work I entitled Dissonance. I want to continue to push the limits of who I am and what I can create. I have found I also like to express myself through modeling. And although modeling is fun, it feels like a smaller extension to the impression that I want to leave; the legacy of a strong woman who was brave enough to follow her dreams. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have been so many struggles along the way. Overcoming childhood abuse and breaking free of the system was first. Being a mother and balancing a career continues to be challenging. I found that when I had my daughter, I had a lot of guilt about doing the things that made me – me. Should I not get tattoos because now I’m a mom? Ect. I felt like it was a hard road to become confident in who I am today and comfortable in the example I am setting for my children. There was one time in Wisconsin when I was walking through the grocery store with my daughter. I think she was about 7. I had mint green hair that I was very proud of, and was dressed in the expressive way that I like to dress. When we walked through the store, I could feel the eyes of the other people judging me. I could hear in my head what they were thinking, but this happened to me a lot, so I just tried to continue about my shopping, pretending I couldn’t see their glaring looks. When we finished shopping and walked into the parking lot, my daughter asked, “Does it bother you that everyone was staring at you?”. Wow, I thought, it was so incredibly obvious that without any words exchanged this small child had picked up on what I was feeling and experiencing. And it wasn’t just in my head. So then, to answer her question, did it bother me that everyone was staring at me. I looked her right in her eyes and asked if she though any of those people were artists, or had friends that were famous musicians, or were live painting on stage. The answer is no. And my point was made. The series of events that have lead me to who I am today is a rocky road, a twisted path that produced a creature not quite like the rest. But that twisted uniqueness is also what makes me great. I have gone through things other people could not, and I have emerged better, stronger. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am known for my festival art. I created original paintings, prints, stickers, and apparel for close to a decade now. I am known for live paintings and more recently for my monsters. A series of paintings I created for a movie entitled Impossible Monsters. I am now known for my largescale charcoal and oil portraits. I am also becoming more known for my modeling. I like to push the limits and add creative elements like paint or tortured babydolls to a photo shoot. I am looking forward to expanding my largescale career and dabbling more in murals. I assisted a muralist from Qatar when I was at Art Basel this past year. I like the thought of collaborating with other cultures and exploring how art can blur boundaries that seem so sharpe and rigid in other aspects. I think art is a unifying gift and something we can use to bring love and acceptance to the forefront of society. 

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I think bravery and strength, which to me go hand in hand. You have to be brave enough to believe in yourself and carry out your own vision. You have to be strong-willed enough to push yourself through to the end. You have to be strong when you get denied because you will. You have to be brave enough to continue to keep going despite your critics or your own self-doubt> You have to continue to have the strength to put yourself out there and make yourself vulnerable. You have to have the strength of spirit and discipline to be your own boss every damn day. I think as an artist the strength to keep going when no one else is telling you what’s next or where to go is one of the hardest things. The path to success is not this series of stepping stones set out for you. You have to find your own path. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gwenap-art.com
• Instagram: @artistgwenap

Image Credits
Matt Geo
Steve Malone Photo
Marcel Labrie