G. J. Gillespie | Summer 2026
Party at the End of the World
G. J. Gillespie | Summer 2026
Why is this piece your Trace Fossil?
“The title comes from a Jimmy Buffett song set at the southern tip of South America—a celebration teetering at the edge of the world. That tension between joy and precariousness is something I return to again and again. I build from grocery advertisements and newsprint—the everyday detritus of modern life—and transform them into something that feels both frenetic and mythological. If you looked at this piece in a hundred years you would know something essential about what it felt like to be alive right now: layered, colorful, a little anxious, and still celebrating.”
GJ Gillespie is a mixed-media collage artist living in a 1928 Tudor Revival farmhouse overlooking Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle. Inspired by mid-century abstract expressionism and the Northwest Mystics, he layers found papers, tissue, acrylic, and graphite into compositions drawn from mythology, music, and shared cultural memory, titling each work after a rock, pop, or folk song. Winner of 19 awards, his art has appeared in 74 exhibitions and 217 publications. He has completed six residencies at the University of Washington Whiteley Center, Friday Harbor Labs. When he is not making art, he runs Leda Art Supply, his international premium sketchbook brand.