Description
Stare (2002), acrylic on an 8 × 10 canvas — a calico cat planted on a turquoise diamond, looking straight out at you, signed and dated in the lower left.
I bought it at the first "30 in 30" in Seattle: 30 artists, 30 canvases each, 900 paintings, all of them $30. I was hanging my own show on another floor of the building, which got me a preview, so I knew what I wanted before the doors opened — I came early and got in line. A few minutes later another person joined the line, and it turned out she was there for the same painting. Out of 900 canvases it was clearly the best one, and it is still beloved.
It comes from Gullow's Seattle years, just after her AA in graphic design and illustration at Seattle Central and long before the MFA and the soft-sculpture turn. One of the earliest works in this collection, bought two decades before the rest of it existed.