Paris is a place of dreams. It has always drawn Americans to its garrets and studios, cafés and salons. Painters have plumbed its beauty and culture for inspiration and vision. Names like James McNeill Whistler and Max Weber, Ellsworth Kelly and Robert Rauschenberg... come to mind: creative spirits who found renown at a time when people still sailed to France, and GIs received government money to study art. But that was then and those were men. What does the dream mean for contemporary women artists?
Gwen Wock’s radiant smile belies the myth of the artist riddled with états d’âme in the maid’s quarters of a residence sans ascenseur. “Paris took some getting used to but I’m happy.” As well she should be. Not only does Wock live in the tony 16th arrondissement, she has become a darling of the international art scene, with openings June 13 at Paris’ Galerie Odile Mauve and in September at New York’s Agora Gallery. A dream come true? Not quite. “I always thought getting to Paris was impossible – I couldn’t even dream it. I never even thought I’d visit Paris. I’m a North Dakota girl.”
Barely 40-something, Wock came to Paris six years ago “for love.” Modern and practical, she has an agent and a website, artworkswithin.com, where she shows her work and shares information with artists. Wock says, ‘I used art as an escape from the doldrums of life in North Dakota.” She got a degree in art education, taught in Alaska, then lived in Hawaii where she worked in construction. Adjusting to urban life was not easy for this small town native. “Initially, I found Paris abrasive: -the noise, crowds, pollution... But the shock caused me to delve more into my art to center myself.”
Primarily self-taught, Wock credits this city for her development as an artist. “Technique is good but you have to break rules to discover your own creative process. Paris exposed me to art in all forms – visual, music, dance. There’s a constant current I tap into that permits me to experiment with a more intuitive, inner language.”
Wock refuses to let prejudice affect her. “Having worked in non-traditional fields, I’ve experienced sexism. I know of Paris galleries that refuse to show women. And male artists predominate in the art world. I simply don’t give my energy to it. My focus is on my art and on my own voice, period. It’s a way of maintaining my power, not letting anything erode it.”
The French capital has infused Wock’s art, which she describes as “abstract urban atmospheric.” Her rich, earthy colors and thick texturing suggest Jackson Pollock, an artist to whom she has been likened.
How does she feel about her success? “I’m focused on art, not commerce. What I strive for is to unfold mysteries, to make discoveries in the creative process. I trust I’m where I need to be in my career. I wouldn’t refuse fame and wealth, but that’s not what inspires my art.” Which is probably exactly why Wock is on her way to both.
