S.T. Gately

I am a Visual Artist and art teacher who works with oil, acrylics, paint markers and permanent markers. I am heavily influenced by the juxtaposition of religious iconography and graffiti art. I love visual codes that the viewer must decipher. I graduated from Hampshire College with a concentration in Comparative Religion and Visual Art. I continued my studies at Lesley University where I earned a Masters in Teaching Visual Art. I have been a certified and practicing K-8 Art teacher for four years. The majority of my work springs from my imagination. Although I am capable of realism, I do not enjoy creating it. In turn, my work illustrates an abstraction of my perception. I am a sexual and physical abuse survivor and I also live with chronic pain from arthritus. These experiences have definitely informed the tone and subjects of my art. As a result of the abusive relationship, I developed my own tag and alternate identity: LOYL. This tag signifies the quality of loyalty in its positive aspect, but also in its negative one. I am dedicated to my friends and family until the end. But, I am loyal to a fault. Trauma can change a person significantly and LOYL represents my transformation into a person who copes with trauma. The thing I enjoy most about making art is when viewers discover something that I did not intend on creating. When this happens, I know that I have done my job well.