WSI: Your poster designs are very cool. What it is about typography and graphics as a way of communication, that you love? AG: I like working with type because it’s such a challenge: to put into words some feeling that you can’t express vocally at the moment that you feel it? And then also to have that vocalization resonate with a viewer? It’s really, really satisfying when it connects. I like typography especially because it encompasses so many other practices, at least in the posters I do: collage, photography, craft, and writing all go in in equal measure. I also really enjoy messing with type in as physical a way as possible: type created using light, thread, paper, chalk… and how those substrates affect the viewer’s perception of what the work is about. I think everything I’m doing with the rest of my work is about trying to form a connection with someone where there might not be one, and typography is the most direct, uninflected way of doing that. It’s really satisfying. WSI: Whats your biggest achievement in your work so far? AG: Having my first solo show, and the eight months or so that led up to it: I’d wanted to show at the gallery I showed at (Narwhal Projects) since I’d begun making things again. Several friends had shown there or been represented by them,
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and whenever I went to an opening there was such a happy feeling of community and camaraderie, and to be able to show a body of work that represented almost a year’s worth of struggling to put into words what I’m trying to do artistically, and to have had such a good experience with the owners and with the space and with the actual setting up of the work, was so gratifying. I think also showing solo, and having people get what I was trying to say, was a really big achievement. And, within that, having the experience of starting out the work with no real understanding of how to engage people as a portraitist, and leaving the work feeling confident in both approaching people and engaging with them in that setting, was a real achievement insofar as it was one of the few times I’ve been able to see a quantifiable leap in my abilities. Basically, this whole last year has been amazing. WSI: Is it hard to be creative everyday? AG: No. I find that, in doing so many things, I can bounce between them with enough frequency to keep all of them interesting, and each practice stimulates the other. Also, working in series’ has made it so that even if I don’t feel motivated creatively, I always at least know which direction to go in, and that usually gets me started again.