Gail Rodney was born in Westchester, PA, in 1946. Her upbring was rich in craft work and musical training, and her father and grandmother painted as amateurs before she was born. Two years spent in Japan at a very young age with her family engendered a lasting interest in Japanese art and craft and in particular, a fascination with paper. After two years at Swarthmore College (which did not offer applied arts courses at the time), she volunteered for a year as part of the War on Poverty. She then moved to New York city to finish her undergraduate work at Columbia’s School of General Studies, majoring in English Literature. She began working, eventually gravitating towards visual media and graphic design. At the suggestion of her husband, she began formal art training in her early 30′s at the National Academy School of Fine Arts and found her passion.
Learning to draw was empowering. Equally powerful was the experience of painting out on the streets of New York, an integral part of watercolor classes with Reeve Schley III, an important mentor. Two years of study led to a Certificate in Painting from the Academy.
She pursued a freelance business in graphic design while studying art, but gradually, fine art began to take a larger role. She began to exhibit and sell her work at the Old Sculpin Gallery in Edgartown, MA, after acceptance as a juried member of the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association. She has had annual shows there since 1996. In 2006 she was juried as an associate member of the Pastel Society of America. In 2008, with nine other artists, she co-founded the GOGA Group, creating an opportunity to exhibit work year-round at the Gallery of Graphic Afts in New York.
Most recently, she has begun to tie together the threads of her earlier years by working in collage, illustrating Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens and Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and creating two limited editions of handmade books containing images of the collage illustrations.