22 Mar 2010

Margaret Kilgallen



Margaret Kilgallen was born in 1967 in Washington, D.C. and received her BA in printmaking from Colorado College in 1989. Early experiences as a librarian and bookbinder contribute to her encyclopedic knowledge of signs drawn from American folk tradition, printmaking, and letterpress. Kilgallen has a love of “things that show the evidence of the human hand.” Painting directly on the wall, Kilgallen created room-size murals that recall a time when personal craft and handmade signs were the dominant aesthetic. Strong, independent women walking, surfing, fighting, and biking feature prominently in the artist’s compositions.

Probably one of the greatest contemporary folk artists, she tragically died in June 2001 in San Francisco, where she lived with her husband, Barry McGee.

Click here for a short video about her and her work. Also there are loads of other artists on this website.

1 comment:

  1. This part of Beautiful Losers was so sad - it silently affected all of the people featured. She touched everyone's lives by being one of the lads but still in a feminine way and so selflessly gave her own life so that her husband could have their child to live on in her memory

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