Gabriela Hirt
Victoria, Canada
 
Gabriela Hirt is a full-time German-Canadian artist who came to the West Coast of British Columbia more than twenty years ago as a professional travel journalist and writer. Always inspired to create, Gabriela discovered her true calling when she first picked up a paint brush while living on a sailboat in the Mediterranean for a year in 2014. ​ Gabriela's desire to share her experiences, confusion, and wisdom in an intuitive way sparks a process of childlike experimentation. She seeks the surprise that awaits when you let go of the outcome. Drawing from her long relationship with words, paintings often start out with stream of consciousness writing. Large gestural moves, intuitive mark making and a process driven studio practice help her tap into the body's knowledge extracting the stories that want to be told. Her paintings are mostly figurative abstractions, sometimes whimsical and playful, sometimes mysterious or pensive - depending on the day. “I draw inspiration from what touches me - a stranger’s particular posture, a memory or something that happens in the world or in my life. What I am most interested in is our human experience, which to me, essentially, is all about connection and its painful opposite: separation.” ​ Gabriela works primarily in acrylic, mixed media, and collage on paper, cradleboard, and canvas. She lives in Victoria on Vancouver Island with her partner, two teenagers, and her puppy Ella.