Sarah Gilfillan
Artist
Where were you raised? Has the landscape of that place influenced your work in any way?
I was raised in a small town in Central New York. We lived right in the village which made exploring on my own very easy, everything I needed to reach connected by sidewalks.
I think growing up in a place that felt accessible to nature and safe walkable routes helped to nurture my time spent alone. To me there’s a clear connection with how I feel today, very much at home in a city setting, to the feeling of living in a walkable part of town when I was younger.
Do you collect anything?
I have a small collection of stones from different places we lived. In 2020, I lived in the high desert in the Mojave for several months. Some of my favorite stones are from the yard I had there.
What was the last thing that you fell in love with?
I just signed a lease on a new painting studio in Hollywood, and I’m quite taken with it. It has bright blue floors which I initially intended to paint, but they’ve grown on me. Although I’m right in the middle of Hollywood, on the main boulevard, no less, there’s a tree outside of my windows, creating somewhat of a natural curtain to the chaos and tourism below.
What do you love most about yourself?
My curiosity
What is your favorite smell? How does it make you feel? Or what memory does it bring you toward?
The mix of street nuts and exhaust and dirty sidewalks in New York gives me whiplash to being a teenager visiting the city for the first time, those early formative years when impulses run high. Now living in LA, sometimes, but not often, those city smells sneak through, and have a similar effect and remind me of starting off in New York.
How do you recharge your creative battery?
Looking at art, sketching, and morning walks.
What book are you reading?
The Ethics of Ambiguity, Simone de Beauvoir
Who are your role models?
I can’t say I’ve ever looked up to a singular person, but the people close to me, my family and friends, are all people I admire in a rich variety of ways.
If you could change one thing about our world, what would it be? Is there an individual or an organization doing work in this area that you want us to know about?
I’ve been following the LA mayors new plan to re-home residents here in Los Angeles. While it’s easy, and even understandable, to be skeptical and cynical of these efforts, after so many promises from others before her, I feel hopeful.
If I was not afraid, I would…
Do harmless things: chop my hair, exist offline, commute by bike
All photos courtesy of Sarah Gilfillan
