"Having a background in doing printmaking and letterpress,
I think that I became very interested in images that were
flat and graphic. And my painting still today is very flat."
"...When young people come up and thank me—that
is why I do work. If I can inspire somebody..."
"...The public looks at graffiti and sees garbage and
ugliness, and I always wonder why they don't look at the
billboards, especially around San Francisco. There's millions
of them..."
"I believe there need to be women visual in our every
day landscape, working hard and doing their own thing, whether
you like it or not, whether it's acceptable or not. Working
hard doing their own thing.
You have many books here in your
studio,
very eclectic. Like this one—it's a very old natural history
book.
KILGALLEN:
Oh, of the Indies, probably.
I don't know, French. When I first started painting seriously
I used to look at a lot of typography
from the 16th century, 15th century. I was interested in manuscript
painting and the lettering that is on the manuscripts and
the color of the page and the color of the inks that they
used, which were normally black and red and sometimes blue.
That sort of tied into bookbinding for me and the type of
typography that I would see in books I'd repair, or the old
pages of the books that I would repair. And that also relates
to this book here. I think part of the reason it's so beautiful
is that the pages were printed like they are in the manuscripts,
so they still show the age that they are. And they also show
the bleed-through of the ink on the back. The imagery is really
kind of simple and graphic
and descriptive of what was natural in the life of the people
living in the Indies. But what I like about it is how simple
and graphic the images are.
ART:21:
The way these images are made
reminds me of your work—straightforward and yet stylized.
Very flatly painted.
KILGALLEN:
Having a background in doing
printmaking and letterpress, I think that I became very interested
in images that were flat and graphic. And my painting still
today is very flat. I think part of the reason is that often
in books that show descriptive plants and animals, the images
tend to be very flat. I was deeply influenced by that. American
craft is like that too—the painting is very flat. And
also the painting that you see on the storefronts, handmade
signs, tend to be very flat. That's probably my biggest influence,
you know, those things.
ART:21:
Do you have goals in your work,
things you are trying to achieve?
KILGALLEN:
I think when I think about myself
I feel I have very short-term goals. And, let's see...I...you
know what? I think I'm not answering your question.
ART:21:
No, you are...
KILGALLEN:
No, I do have something to say
about that, but it relates to what I said to you earlier in
the train yards about women. I guess it's not really a long-term
goal, but when I get down and don't feel like doing art and
I feel like giving it up, then the thing that keeps me going
is the fact that maybe, maybe, somebody will learn from what
I'm doing, and learn from either seeing my work. I don't know
how to say that exactly. Often, I know artists supposedly
do their work for themselves, and it is very personally motivated
and you work a lot by yourself. And yet when you put your
work out there and somebody comes up to you and thanks you
for doing it, and especially when young people come up and
thank me—that is why I do work. If I can inspire somebody...
I think my work in particular is pretty accessible to people,
and I think it's very accessible to young people who are interested
in doing art or are doing art.
ART:21:
You seem interested in signage
and other things from forty or fifty years ago.
KILGALLEN:
I'm definitely interested in
the past, and in a past that maybe I idealize as a time when
things were well-made, and when maybe you couldn't go to Home
Depot to find what you needed but you had to make it on your
own. And the thing is often people refer to that as the past,
and I don't really think of it as the past because people
still do that all the time today. It's just often in the city
when there's so many things to look at and so many things
going on—you don't see those things. But I see those
things. On any day in the Mission in San Francisco, you can
see a hand-painted sign that is kind of funky, and maybe that
person, if they had money, would prefer to have had a neon
sign. But I don't prefer that. I think it's beautiful, what
they did and that they did it themselves. That's what I find
beautiful.
ART:21:
You like to see the touch of
someone's hand.
KILGALLEN:
Yes, I enjoy seeing—I don't
know how to phrase it. I like things that are handmade and
I like to see people's hand in the world, anywhere in the
world; it doesn't matter to me where it is. And in my own
work, I do everything by hand. I don't project or use anything
mechanical, because even though I do spend a lot of time trying
to perfect my line work and my hand, my hand will always be
imperfect because it's human. And I think it's the part that's
off that's interesting, that even if I'm doing really big
letters and I spend a lot of time going over the line and
over the line and trying to make it straight, I'll never be
able to make it straight. From a distance it might look straight,
but when you get close up, you can always see the line waver.
And I think that's where the beauty is.
ART:21:
But when it comes to graffiti,
people, especially adults, have a hard time seeing the beauty
in that sort of gesture.
KILGALLEN:
Well, when I think about my parents—my parents don't understand writing on things, like writing
graffiti, but they're beginning to.
ART:21:
What's making them think differently?
KILGALLEN:
I think when I have explained
graffiti to my parents and compared it to the barrage of images
we see every day, especially advertising, and how on billboards
or corner stores or anywhere—it's absolutely everywhere—and
yet it doesn't bother anybody. We completely block it out
as if we don't see it, but for some reason we don't think
of it as garbage. And instead maybe we look at graffiti, or
the public looks at graffiti and sees garbage and ugliness,
and I always wonder why they don't look at the billboards,
especially around San Francisco. There's millions of them,
like the new thing is dot.coms everywhere. Like, why isn't
that garbage? That's like mind garbage. It's like commercials
on T.V., and yet nobody ever questions that. That is so a
part of their view of the world every single day. And when
I explained that to my parents, they began to understand why
other people might want to put their own visuals in their
own neighborhood. Something that they could relate to.
ART:21:
Like the markings on trains?
What are those visuals about?
KILGALLEN:
Writing on trains, or train marking,
is like networking. I'm talking specifically about the markings
on the trains. First of all, I always find it amazing that
I see things that I recognize and I see things again and again.
Because if somebody's living in Maine, it's pretty amazing
that it arrives in San Francisco intact and I can read it.
The oldest things I've seen have been from the early '70s
and maybe late '60s. When I see things I recognize, I don't
know anything about the person; I just know what they write,
and it's kind of like meeting an old friend. There is not
specific communication that goes on between people, but you
have a sense of anybody who's spending so much time writing
on trains, because, if I'm to walk into a yard and see something
in California, that person most likely has written on hundreds
of trains.
ART:21:
How is marking on trains different
from marking or doing graffiti on the streets?
KILGALLEN:
It's not that different. It's
actually very similar to what happens in the city, except
for most of the people who write on trains tend to be older
males. They're not young males. They're older males.
ART:21:
I know you had some hesitation
doing this television program and now maybe I have a better
sense knowing the way you feel about commercials and billboards,
and the fact that you don't even watch T.V.
KILGALLEN:
I felt really shy and nervous
about doing this particular T.V. thing. And the reason I decided
to do it was because I believe there need to be women visual
in our every day landscape, working hard and doing their own
thing, whether you like it or not, whether it's acceptable
or not. Working hard doing their own thing. And I hope by
showing my work anywhere I happen to show it that there's
somebody who can come away feeling like they can work too.
And I especially hope to inspire young women because often
I feel like so much emphasis is put on how beautiful you are,
and how thin you are, and not a lot of emphasis is put on
what you can do and how smart you are. I'd like to change
that, change the emphasis of what's important when looking
at a woman.
