I have chosen to use snapshot photos of personal nostalgic places of the past and present to inspire my paintings. Through painting these moments, I can monumentalize the memories, hopefully shifting them beyond the familiarity of the photograph. The play between abstraction and representation is evident, as I continually search for the unfamiliar to surface.

My paintings allow mistakes to exist in a visual space. I aim to produce art that meets its viewer on a plane of equality; to link us or draw us closer to a sense of our own daily lives. My interest is less in a historical critique than in an attempt to construct a language, creating a fresh encounter with painting.

I am extremely interested in how painting has the ability to slow down our thought process, breaking down representational imagery into abstraction.  I love the softness and fluidity of paint and continue to experiment with the physicality of the medium.

b.1986

Jill McGillivray completed her BFA at the University of Manitoba in 2012. Jill lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.