Artist Statement

S.T. Gately is a Massachusetts based 2D Visual Artist and K-8 Art Teacher. She has been a practicing Visual Artist for over twenty years and has exhibited in group and solo shows throughout the New England area. Gately attended Hampshire College where she received a B.A. in Comparative Religion and Visual Art in 2003. In 2008, Gately received her M.Ed for Teaching Visual Arts PreK-8 from Lesley University.

In the last three years, Gately has been creating three separate bodies of work. One is part of a series of small, detailed ink drawings titled “Transautomatism”, a style of creating that relies upon interpretation of the viewer rather than intention of the artist.  Transautomatism is a term coined by Austrian, activist, architect and painter who drew its roots from surrealism’s “automatic writing”. These works express Gately’s subconscious emotions around a variety of subjects including chronic illness and isolation. In addition to Transautomatism, Gately has been creating both found object and organic assemblage pieces. The organic assemblage consists of materials Gately has grown and cultivated by hand, dried, adhered to canvas and hand painted. The found object assemblage consists of materials Gately already possesses or has collected via consumption. Gately no longer purchases surfaces to create large scale works,  but creates artwork on top of already finished pieces. Over time, Gately’s process of creating art draws upon the idea that “you gotta use what you have.”

 

Gately is a firm believer, as a Visual Arts Educator that all people deserve access to view and create visual art regardless of materials being archival or classified as “fine art”. As an Art Teacher, the first guideline in Gately’s classroom is “Everybody is an Artist!” and that is the reigning philosophy in both her curriculum as well as her artistic practice.