"I think there's an attitude difference between what's
done inside and what's done outdoors. Your audience is different,
so if you're working outside on the trains you're working
for a specific audience that looks at those things..."
"I do paint a lot of women and I do have a lot of heroines,
as well as a lot of heroes too. But I definitely paint more
women and I think maybe it's because I'm a woman."
Could we talk a little about
your process?
Especially the difference between doing work indoors, in a
gallery or museum setting, and outdoors, in the train yard
or graffiti
on a building.
KILGALLEN:
I think there's an attitude difference
between what's done inside and what's done outdoors. Your
audience is different, so if you're working outside on the
trains you're working for a specific audience that looks at
those things, like especially other people who ride on trains
and who are interested in train history and folklore. And
if you're doing something in the city, then hopefully you're
speaking to somebody who has an open mind who is walking by.
And you're also speaking to a community of other people who
do similar types of work. I like to think that the outdoor
community is broad and able and open for anybody to see. And
often, if you do work for a gallery or an inside location,
your audience is narrowed just by the location and what kind
of a place it is. A museum probably gets more people, a wider
range of people, than a commercial gallery.
ART:21:
And you've also done community
based work, involving people from the community?
KILGALLEN:
I worked on a mural project at
the Marin Headlands with a group of kids from Marin City.
I think there were about twelve of them. And they are all
kids who are part of an after school children's program, and
it was a group of kids who were selected from that after school
program who were interested in painting and interested in
art and interested in making a mural. And so those kids came
over to the Marin Headlands and we went on a hike with a person
who worked at the nursery at Marin Headlands. We went and
looked at wild flowers and plants, and then the kids all chose
one that they could paint. And so I didn't paint on the mural
at all; the kids did all the work and they, a lot of them,
were not interested in going on a hike at all. They were scared
of bugs and scared of grass and leaves and any time something
moved somebody would scream. But it was really, really fun
to work with them because, with just a little bit of prodding,
they were really excited about it. And it was kind of funny,
too, because I would walk in and I would say "Hi" to everybody
and they would just sit back and not make any facial expression
at all—they would just act all tough. And then as I got
to know them, they got rowdier and rowdier and more outgoing.
It was fun.
ART:21:
In a lot of your paintings there
are figures which seem to be heroes, or rather heroines. Who
are these women and what do they mean to you?
KILGALLEN:
I want to say one more thing
about the community art. I guess the reason I'm interested
in doing community related things is that I feel that the
more and more work I do in a gallery, it is really easy to
get separated from people. As an artist you want to be able
to sell your work and you want to be able to live off your
work, and the world that involves the art buying and selling
is a very closed world. And sometimes you forget about the
other world around you. Doing community art sort of keeps
you in touch with where you're from, where I'm from.
ART:21:
Establishing or maintaining connections
seems to be a large part of your work, whether it's with a
community, people who make things by hand, or with other women.
KILGALLEN:
I do paint a lot of women and
I do have a lot of heroines, as well as a lot of heroes too.
But I definitely paint more women and I think maybe it's because
I'm a woman. I like to paint images of women whom I find inspiring.
And in the beginning, I used to, and I still do, hear somebody
playing music on a record and then I wouldn't know what they
looked like at all but I would imagine what they looked like
and draw it. Or I would read something in a book, like I used
to read a lot about the history of swimming and the first
woman to win the Olympics in 1912 was a woman named Fanny
Durack. Now I'm hoping I'm right again, but her name was Fanny
Durack, and she was from Australia and she wore a full wool
suit. And the reason she won is because she swam the Australian
crawl and the other women weren't swimming that way. But I
actually feel like a good portion of my heroes are living
now and alive, and a lot of them I know.
ART:21:
Would you like to name a few?
KILGALLEN:
Should I give you a list or something?
ART:21:
Maybe an example or two.
KILGALLEN:
Matoki Slaughter—she's an
old-time banjo player. Alda Mae Hinton—she plays kind
of bluesy guitar and does flat-footing at the same time. Kathleen
Hannah—she's a rock star, about my age probably. Gosh,
I could think of more, but it's going to take me a second.
ART:21:
I'm sure there are many strong
women you could name, but you only seem to paint a few.
KILGALLEN:
Well, like Matoki Slaughter for
instance—I got interested in old-time music, particularly
the banjo, and the records I would buy would have no women
on them, ever. And she was the first woman I ever saw on an
old-time record. Now I know of other women who also do that
and do that today. And she's still alive too. I couldn't believe
I had found a woman on there. And I didn't know it was a woman
for a while because of the name Matoki. I didn't know. I didn't
know what gender that was, so I felt very excited about that.
Alda Mae Hinton—I saw her on a tape all about flat-footing
and buck dancing. She's pretty old now I think. She's a single
mother and supports her children by playing her music. And
she was also the only woman in this sequence of that tape
who was playing and dancing. And she would play her guitar,
and she would do the flat footing, and then she would turn
around and put her guitar on on her back and play the guitar
and dance. It was pretty incredible. So I don't like to choose
people that everybody knows; I like to choose people that
just do small things and yet somehow hit me in my heart.
