Last updated: February 1, 2023

Part of what I am trying to offer through my art practice is a sort of glimpse at the potential for the miraculous in the everyday life, to disrupt the idea that reality is full of the mundane. It may feel earnest -- and I mean no disrespect through this offering. I want to express awareness that my art, my access to making art, my platform, my collaborations, and so much else are existing in a world that is rampant with colonization, dispossession, extraction, and forced relocation of people and cultures. I am here with a slew of privileges -- my skin color, my able and healthy body, my US citizenship, my family privileges, my education, and more. From this place, I am committed to holding myself accountable to show up with the courage to face the realities of the traumas in this world, and the humbleness to embrace and share my work in a heart-centered way. Throughout this website, my newsletter, my publications, my public art projects, my commissions, etc., I'll share some of what I have learned as a life-long student. I am no expert. I want to name that much of what I will share comes from, and when possible, is made with, people who are faced with today's struggles and are reeling from the last century and beyond of ongoing neocolonialism and systemic racism. I recognize my entanglement, and inability to separate myself and my work from these realities. Thanks for joining me on this journey. 

thanks for reading,

gilian

~Written with cues from the language of Lil' Deb's Oasis and Southerners on New Ground 

If you have any questions about this note, please contact gili@gilianrappaport.space.