In 1965 Gillian Loop was enrolled in a progressive preschool where she was free to spend her day figuratively glued to the easel on the school lawn. Her artwork through her school years was regularly included in school exhibits in the community, so a creative career seemed inevitable. 

 

Initially enrolling in college as an art major Gillian switched to fashion design out of a naive fear of becoming a "poor, struggling" artist. The widely recognized Homeboy Industries logo and a California Apparel News editorial marked a career comprised not only of garment design and construction but additionally textile, print, logo, and screenprint design. Being one of the rare people with nearly equal access to both the right and left hemispheres of the brain allowed her to change gears when “free trade” shook up the garment industry in 1994 leading to a career in the technology sector. 

​

In 2004 She began making collages by placing printed objects adjacent to each other in a manner that created a field of color gradation. At the time ombre was a predominant trend and influenced this work. Having a background in fashion Gillian has a heightened awareness of trends and in 2018 when pixelated images or exploded views appeared frequently in film and advertising it was this influence that led to slicing up an earlier collage. By applying the collage strips to a painted canvas and layering them with additional print elements, her technique was born. 

 

This work has evolved so that strips are now used to construct rather than deconstruct an image.  She uses the same technique to create fields of color similar to what she aimed to achieve in 2004 but with a more staccato look and texture. Additional developments have led to painting most of the strip material rather than sourcing it from magazines, packaging, and labels.

​

Although having won recognition for artwork occasionally entered in local fairs, after formally leaving the garment industry, 2018 marked the point of her full engagement as an artist as well as the further expansion of collage concepts. These venues have included national exhibits, art fairs, and publications.