"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust

Gaia Schilke, grew up in suburban USA (CT), and lived in Manhattan for 20 years, then Rhode Island for 10 years before moving to Costa Rica in 2012. During her travels through Latin America she discovered San Miguel de Allende, and has happily lived here since 2016.

A visual artist and poet all her life, Gaia has exhibited her artwork in New York City, New England and Florida, and in SMA at Imagine Gallery, Berlin, and biannually during the San Antonio open studio art walks. She has published her illustrations internationally: pen & ink, scratchboard, and linocuts, and has published two books of poetry, illustrations, and illustrated poetry - most recently (2020) a collection of her work from the past 25 years, A Coney Island State of Mind, available on Amazon.

Gaia's current series of cut and paste collages, ‘México mi Amor', are assembled with intricate cuts from her own photos, all taken in México since 2016 - mostly during the pandemic and many from her own backyard in Col. San Antonio – but also from Zihuateneo, Parque Landeta, and at various homes of friends out in the campo around SMA.

Photographing, editing and printing her photos are just the beginning of Schilke's montage process in creating her collages. Then the fun begins - deconstructing the photos and creating new ways of looking at the landscapes, people, and culture of México. Gaia wants to reveal a México that is, for many, unseen and underappreciated. The botanicals, architecture, colors, shadows and patterns of the extraordinary Méxican landscape are what she celebrates in her work, while using her photos – often up to 40 in each one-of-a-kind collage – as her medium.

Gaia is thrilled to be part of the inaugural exhibit at Atelier Dolan, with her good friends and most talented painters Chris Dolan and Debra Deutsch Oliver.

Mysterious landscapes and figures have excited my imagination and established for me an almost mystical foundation for painterly expression. Their poetic symbolism represents and parallels certain moments in my life, and although veiled through time and space, their mythological substance still haunts the subliminal world of my mind. Chris Dolan was born in Philadelphia, PA. After studying at Maryland Institute College of Art and Corcoran College of Art in Washington, DC. Chris moved to France where she continued her studies at the Les Beaux Arts in Grenoble, finishing at the Beaux Art de Aix -en-Provence.She lived and exhibited her work in France for twenty five years.

Chris now divides her time between Savannah, GA and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She was an artist in residence with Skot Foreman Arts at Fabrica Aurora for many years, and is currently represented by Thomas Deans Fine Art in Atlanta, GA.

You know that moment in every Broadway musical when the characters can't help but burst into song and dance? That's what I hope to capture in my paintings. I see the canvas as a stage for the theater of everyday life – a space where anything is possible. Where any ordinary task can become a dance, a moment of transformation. Like a live performance, my work is intended to connect intimately and emotionally with the audience. It is a vivid mix of expressive movement and spontaneous action, often involving the props that make up our daily lives. I enjoy sprinkling my paintings with visual puns, subtle humor and references to nostalgic pop culture – all of which are open to the viewer's interpretation. I mix from a primary color palette, infusing my brushstrokes with the same sense of movement that defines my themes and subjects. My hope is that my art can touch the part of the human spirit that ignites joy, lightheartedness, and empowerment – those moments when words just don't cut it, but a gesture says it all.

Debra received a BFA in Studio Art from The University of Texas at Austin (1986) and earned her art education certification from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1999). As a high school art teacher in the Chicago Public Schools for twenty years, she was committed to inspiring creativity and building confidence in her students through art. She and her classes were selected for several special projects, including an 88-foot mosaic funded by the Oppenheimer Family Foundation and a mural for the Chicago Police Academy building. Many of her students received awards and scholarships through the All City Art Competition.

Debra currently lives in San Miguel de Allende and is a new member of Galeria Blue Moon. A lifelong dancer and mover, she infuses her visual art with kinesthetic energy and performance.

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