Geraldine Hanley
Contact details
Email: geraldineh7@gmail.com
Statement
In childhood I watched my uncle Tom Hutcheson mix colours for his evocations of Lanarkshire pit-workings … and absorbed his influences which included Tapies, Burri, Eardley, Rothko, Clave, Motherwell, Picasso.
Equally fantastic were the worlds of fashion, architecture, cinema and literature – as exemplified for me by other family members, and later by many exciting students at GSA.
I work from all these influences, seeking to reconcile feelings both lemon-light and dusty-dark, embodied in materials rough and precious. I’m inspired by walks in Kilcreggan – a blackbird shouting at a stream, a bee interviewing some frog-spawn, Hawthorn blossom bursting forth from winter- black silhouette; and by traces of city-life in Glasgow – the tyre-grind of gravel on kerbstone, flaking layers of paint, abandoned flowers rotting in cellophane.
These ideas may be the starting point for a painting, but as the image progresses it’s resolution is not determined by a single intention – instead it’s success often depends on relinquishing my grasp.. “surrendering to the chaos of the unconscious”, in the hope of salvaging and expressing a savage, joyous verve.
Art, for me, is like taking the ghost of myself to visit an eternal being….scratching out and re-writing until the scribble zaps to life a perfect, silent moment.
History
Studied Printmaking & Mixed Media 1976-1980 Glasgow art School.
Worked in Film & Television Production for 20 years – and made some short films, documentaries and music videos.
Resumed art practice around 2000, attending many life-drawing, painting, sculpture and pottery classes.
