PRELUDE
PHOTO BY G M D THREE
I met Gregory through Instagram. We actually never met in real life, but I felt like I did when I saw his page. What was interesting about his work was the fragility of it. Through those impressive paper hats, I could feel the tingle of the awe of my love of the visuals in Haute Couture. Shapes and forms seem to make love with laziness and grace. It was like holding the mysteries of eroticism, like a crown on top of the mannequins heads.
MX. HRRY : Tell me about the place of art in your day to day life?
GREGORY GRAY : It’s a constant. It runs through everything I do.
Everything I do is rooted in my creativity. It’s the lens through which I see and interact in the world. I read about a collective of artists and writers called The Aesthetes. That believed in living an aesthetic life, surrounded by beauty in all things. The group was composed of writers, artists, ceramists and others that lived in a communal setting and created and shared their creativity. That approach to living evolved in me during my time in France and now provides the underpinnings of how I try to live.
MX. HRRY : How do you cope with rough times in your art career?
GREGORY GRAY :I try to see rough times as part of my journey. They often lead to new ideas, insights.
When I was younger I probably tried to change the channel with a distraction stronger than my anxiety. Now, I try to sit with it when I can and when I can’t I meditate.
First I have a meltdown, then I take a deep breath realizing that pouting ain’t gonna fix it and start to tell myself things that make me feel worse or better. Eventually, I always take them as lessons and corrections. Often they offer breakthroughs in my life and in my work. My failures are the same as rough times, a correction and once I’m passed blaming myself or others, a lesson. Sometimes what I’ve thought were failures later proved to be epiphanies that I failed to see because of pride and ego.
MX. HRRY : What is the place of spirituality in your projects?
GREGORY GRAY :Paperhats are deeply spiritual for me. They are attempt to reconcile difference, conundrums and to transcend otherness. To create an inclusive space where all are welcome. The hats are a thought poem that explores the concept of Earthlings, through the mixing of ancient and traditional art practices commonalities and differences to create and inclusive expression.
Spirituality and creativity are the same for me.
MX.HRRY: Tell me about the last moment of inspiration you had? Where, when, how and what happen?
Most recently while weaving paper stripes to form using basketry techniques that would be used to make a hat when I discovered I loved the weavings so much that they are now, my new passion.
MX.HRRY: What would you say to a teenager who wants to be an artist and/or to your younger self?
GREGORY GRAY :I would say to the teenager, do, make and absorb everything that interest you, then make some more. And I would say to myself
Learn to live and accept yourself because you will have to be you for a very long time.