Gloria Gelo: From Corporate Life to Painting With Paper
Host Wendy Solganik introduces season 6, episode 3 guest Gloria Gelo, a Cleveland-raised contemporary abstract mixed media artist now based in Calgary and a new Fodder School 6 teacher. Gloria shares her Croatian immigrant family background, early love of art and typography, and how a discouraging community college instructor derailed her confidence and pushed her into business school and corporate roles, including foreign currency trading at Citibank in New York and a creative resume-led job at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. After moving to Calgary, raising three sons, and later divorcing and remarrying, she received a 2018 corporate payout that enabled her to return to art full time, experiment across media, and develop a layered, minimalist collage practice using self-made papers and asemic writing. She now teaches in person and online, is gallery-represented, and previews her Fodder School “Line to Layer” challenge and a concertina book project focused on creating personal collage papers blending analog and digital methods.
00:00 Meet Gloria Gelo
02:06 Podcast Intro and Format
03:44 Nerves and Zoom Setup
04:34 Life in Calgary
06:13 Cleveland Roots and Canada
10:17 Fodder School Connection
11:36 Immigrant Family Story
15:08 Croatian Traditions and Food
20:27 Early Art Spark
23:28 Art School Confidence Crash
28:13 Business Pivot and Corporate Life
32:13 Wall Street to LA Move
34:56 Universal Studios Creativity Win
36:59 LA Life and Cabinet Business
38:43 Life in the Valley
39:52 Business Sold Suddenly
40:33 Move Back to Calgary
42:16 Divorce and Remarriage
43:05 Layoff Sparks Art
45:00 Finding Mixed Media
49:36 From Process to Selling
52:33 Gallery Representation
55:50 Teaching Goes Online
01:00:19 Art as Communication
01:08:07 Typography Origins
01:13:58 Asemic Writing Tips
01:16:48 Fodder School Projects
01:20:49 Final Wrap and Goodbye