Genevieve May’s father, artist Dennis Nolan, said, “Keeping it simple and magical is the best way to travel. And the magic is always there if we take the time to notice it.” He and his wife Lauren Mills, a book illustrator, writer and sculptor collaborated on a number of projects.
Growing up in rural Massachusetts, Genevieve has always had a love for fashion and for the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. Leaving the city one day after photographing a model, she saw a piece of graffiti on a wall that read “wolves once walked here.”
In the End, You Had Wings, oil on panel, 30 x 40"
“I thought about my love for fashion and glamour and about how we have destroyed the earth,” says May. “My parents always gave me fashion-related books and I make the dresses that the models wear in my paintings. My parents often went to New York for book contracts and openings but would always come back here to the country. And I always come back to nature at the end of the day.”
During hospice care a year ago, Dennis Nolan painted up to five days before he died. He told his family that he wanted to come back as a hummingbird.
I Look to You, oil on board with silver leaf, 24 x 18"
In her 2023 painting In the End, You Had Wings, a young woman stands in a field wearing a red dress surrounded by hummingbirds. There are 15 hummingbirds, recalling the day of the month when her father died. The model is a stand-in for the artist and wears a dress she designed.
In My Mind, oil on panel, 14 x 11"
Genevieve has always been drawn to red in fashion although she doesn’t own a single item that’s red. When she was caring for her father and had difficulty sleeping, she would close her eyes to a field of red. She researched the color and learned it is the first color we see as a baby, evokes the most emotion and can be stressful to process in home décor.
“I decided to paint a bunch of red paintings for the viewer to see,” she explains. “I wanted to put my brain on the canvas.”
The Girl Who Wore Red, oil on leather, 18 x 24"
Her paintings are often allegories, drawing viewers in. “In the artists I love,” she says, “I end up being taken out of the space I’m in and into their world. Art in general is like a mental break for people. I want that to be the effect of my work.”
Her red paintings and others will be shown in the exhibition Wolves Once Walked Here at Abend Gallery in Denver from July 29 through August 12. —
Abend Gallery 303 Detroit Street • Denver, CO 80204 • (720) 551-4044 • www.abendgallery.com
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