Meet Felicia E. Gail | Interdisciplinary Artist, Writer, Curator, and owner of Collections Stewardship Southeast

We had the good fortune of connecting with Felicia E. Gail and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Felicia E., how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
I appreciate this question about the evolution of balance in my life. Thank you. It’s interesting because my friend, Jiabao Sun connected me with you, and she embodies artful balance and empathic care, so it seems befitting that I answer this particular question with thoughts of her friendship in mind. Currently, I work independently as an interdisciplinary artist, writer, curator, and as Collections Stewardship Southeast based out of Atlanta. Faced with a personal and professional crossroads last spring, it became very clear it was time to make a major shift in my life. I needed to explore new avenues within my own geographic region, one I’d grown quite passionate about. Not only was geography ever present in mind, but It also became very important for me to understand the limitations my body was communicating as of late. I needed to understand how I could work with the changes in a positive way. By making both professional and conceptual leaps, I have been so lucky to reinvestigate my own interests within the art world as a whole, spend quality time in my expanded communities of individuals, museums, and galleries, and I was immediately able to spend more time on my personal art practice of writing and photography. Making these, at times subtle, yet major pivots in perspective permitted me to activate a more balanced approach to everything, really. I am now making space for art, life, family, body, community, and mind again. I may embarrass myself and not always get it right, but I believe it is about the effort we put toward the journey that can transform an overall experience. Even in this short time of transition, I have had the good fortune of reinvesting in my home region in Northwest Florida by doing an artist residency last May, as well as getting to know my new home better here in Atlanta. I moved to Atlanta in March of 2019 from Pensacola, FL for love and work. While the love part remains incredible, and it was a great experience to have a steady gallery job, I noticed I wasn’t always participating in the city in the ways I felt I could. In my life, I’ve prioritized traveling and have spent time in many places in the US, a bit in Cambodia and Vietnam, and a five year stint in Vancouver, Canada. In Vancouver I earned my MFA in Visual Art, worked in film, bicycle mechanics, lived with fascinating people, worked at a gallery, volunteered with artist-run centers, and taught at a university. It was there I learned about true acceptance, and the language that surrounds being present for yourself as well as your community. I learned how collectives work in general and tried to apply that to my working life overall. Inspired by the people I have connected with, I try to embrace the bumps and turns. and I am continually ready for what art may reveal within it all. I try to be generous with what I’ve learned in return if generosity is what is called for. I’ve learned saying no well is a gift that can benefit rather than be a space of guilt. Living a life in service of art, being kind to all bodies, connecting with people, all while holding a strong sense of urgency feels like the most important parts of keeping the balance in my life. No matter what career happens, what has occurred personally, or where I’ve landed physically or metaphorically, and I’ve landed in a few crazy places in my life, art has always kept me constant, kept me steady, kept me connected. This all sounds incredibly idealistic, but I’m glad idealism still exists in my mind in spite of all the things that might have squashed it. I’m certain I won’t always know what’s coming to knock me down, but I hope I can keep a sense of humor while I stand up again to meet it face to face.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My practice takes up writing, photography, installation, performance, sculpture, archives, teaching, curation, and collections stewardship. In my creative practice I investigate the intersections between memorialized events and place often reframing ideas of residencies as artistic practice incorporating elements of lived materials, transportation, and feminism through a Southern Gothic-Imagist lens. Namely, I enjoy taking photographs, writing what I observe, and forming those ideas into an installation, performance, video, web, or a book platform. It becomes a similar process when I work with other artists to configure an exhibition as well, and I like to see where their work wants an exhibition to go. In 2018 I was curating an exhibition called “Hustle: Museum of Spectacle” in Pensacola, Florida. I met the late great Matty Jankowski, a vivacious collector and artist. From his collection and works, I was inspired to invite Julia Gorton, Jimbo Easter, and borrow a Frederick W. Glasier collection from the Ringling Museum. The exhibition was about punk, museum, circus, and tattoo histories as well as a storied connection between artists and the Pensacola community. I very much enjoy collaborating with folks, and even when I work on my own personal projects, I tend to draw upon my surroundings of friends, families, and landscapes. My evolving projects are “Close Your Eyes Investigations of Space”, 2009 – present, and “Travel Back to Blue”, 2011 – present, an ongoing collection of written and ephemeral works that took new shape in 2016 during a semi-solo motorcycle journey from the Pacific Northwest of Canada to West Texas, USA. Most recently, I collaborated with another artist, Noelle McCleaf, on a zine called, “Reverberations”, a collection of photographic and poetic exchanges all considering Georgia and Florida. In May of 2023 I completed an editioned portfolio of photography and poetry called, “Walk Free; Free Capture”, in response to my artist residency at 309 Punk Project. I’ve been invited to share my writing in a few publications over the years, and always enjoy sharing my work through invitation. Admittedly, I’ve never been very tenacious with sending my work out in applications for opportunities. As a goal for this year, I hope to put myself out there a little more. In April of 2023 I set out to work independently under the business name of Collections Stewardship Southeast, a name to correspond with my desire for serving folks and their special collections whether art, music, writing, photographs, or any other objects of significance with cataloging, database work, writing, curating, photographing, website assistance, and all related aspects of keeping organized and preserving the lives and legacies of precious things. I enjoy learning new histories, writing, and having the flexibility to work with new people and projects. I love being around people’s collections, photographs, ephemera, and other details that tell a story. I was first inspired to do this work when I was a curatorial assistant for Presentation House Gallery (now Polygon Gallery) when working on the Glenn Lewis archive website in Vancouver, again many years later when I met Matty J. by-way-of Pensacola Museum of Art, and during my four years at Jackson Fine Art. Matty was a dear friend who is no longer in this world, and I hope to continue this work in honor of our friendship. Lately, I’ve been going through my own archive as I consider a larger personal book project.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would probably force them to play fetch with my dog, Dolly, first and foremost. I’d give them a personal tour of all the art made by friends (both local and afar) that my fella and I hung in our new place in East Atlanta. In the morning we’d head out to Home Grown for breakfast, then I’d take them on a walk to see what folks are painting on nearby walls, then go to the High Museum before rush hour begins, we’d stop over at the Local, and be sure to say hello to the sweet folks at Liberty Tattoo across the street, then back over to East Atlanta Village to have a burger and see a show at the Earl. The next day we’d hop on motorbikes, hold our breath past the crazy traffic, and roll into the pretty spots of North Georgia to see waterfalls and vistas. If it’s hot, then I guess a cool dip in whatever waterhole we find might be nice. After all that, I might want to pass out in a tent and camp under the stars by a well tended fire and look forward to a hot cup of coffee in the morning surrounded by a bunch of sweet people.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My list of influences would be quite long and would always include my strong mother, Jackie Edwards, an avid lone traveler, collector of clouds, and seeker of fun, family, and love. In the spirit of this interview, I would have to include Julia Gorton, artist and maker of “Nowhere New York”, a book released last year. Julia is an incredible person who has been a powerful voice of influence and friendship to me since 2018. She is brave, inspired, creative, talented, encouraging, and so damn cool at every step. If I could be even a teaspoon of her, I would be very lucky. Another would be Jane Jackson. Jane is a gifted curator, a brilliant purveyor of art and fine craft, and director of The Object Space here in Atlanta. She has been a great mentor to me this past year, and I am continually moved by her commitment to honesty, kindness, her genuine service to art and artists, as well as her sharpness for art world trends as a whole. To learn from her has been a boost in my professional confidence, and I’m forever grateful. Her ease in sharing her knowledge, treating others with mutual respect along with her beautiful no nonsense philosophy is always impressive to me. Additionally, Rebecca Solnit is an author I have admired since my mid-thirties, particularly a book she wrote called “A Field Guide to Getting Lost”. Not only did I share it with students when I was a teacher, it was a poetic guidepost of sorts as I traversed a new country of ideas during a transitional chapter in my life. She conveys an acute language of justice and feminism, crafts observational, non-fiction writing while simultaneously navigating complex landscapes. While I do not know her personally, I had a chance to meet her briefly at a book signing in 2016 in Vancouver. Her words rang true as she read about the power of uncertainty from her work, “Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities”. To meet one’s own heroines can be very special.

Website: https://www.feliciaegail.us/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feliciaegail/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felicia-e-gail/

Other: https://www.instagram.com/travelbacktoblue/ https://www.collectionsstewardshipsoutheast.com/

Image Credits
008_Felicia E. Gail reading_photo by Scott Satterwhite 0013_Hustle_photo by Mike Suhor