Dear Friends,

Last month I attended the opening reception for the retrospective exhibition titled Dorothy Gillespie: Selected Works from the Radford University Collection" at the Wilma W. Daniels Art Gallery in Wilmington, North Carolina. (See photos below)

Two weeks later my sister Dorien and I traveled to The University of North Carolina Wilmington’s campus to see the exhibition titled Dorothy Gillespie: Portraits and Self- Portraits. The exhibition opened May 18 in the UNCW Cultural Arts Building Art Gallery and will run through Friday September 1, 2023. Many of the portraits and self-portraits have never been exhibited before. (See photos below)
Dorothy Gillespie: Portraits and Self Portraits
May 18 – September 1, 2023
"I studied portrait painting at the Art Students League in NYC with Sidney Dickenson. I thought: "People are important. I'll paint people" But, alas they were not important enough. I'm glad I learned to paint people (remember, people are important). I still don't feel that what I'm doing when I paint the portraits is important, but I do feel that people are. And, it's better that something exists of their presence than nothing."
                            Dorothy Gillespie
Why didn't Dorothy Gillespie smile in any of her self-portraits?

"My mother was a student of history and throughout art history, happy self-portraits are a rare sight. My mother didn't paint self-portraits to practice conveying emotions. It was rather to experiment with colors, techniques and styles of painting."
Gary Gillespie Israel