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David Gilhooly's first job after graduating (1967) from UCD was teaching a watercolor class at SJSU. He spent the summer before he was to teach making what he calls his three-dimensional watercolors.
"I didn't have a kiln at that time, but still wanted to do large animals. They had the advantage of being really light, easy to repair and I found that I could make animals that stood up on their own legs. The pieces were made of chicken wire wrapped in newspaper that had been soaked in wheatpaste. This was then covered with a quilted packing paper called Kimpak which looked just like fur when dipped in wheatpaste."
The first papier-mâché piece was a Nile crocodile he made over a mud
crocodile that was made in his backyard. This was hung on the outside of the
Rainbow House in San Francisco. The Rainbow House was a house owned by Maija
Bright, a Sacramento, California area painter, and her then husband David
Zack. The wheat paste on the outside of the piece eventually got moldy because
of the foggy nights in San Francisco and the crocodile fell apart. Undaunted,
David made another more sturdy crocodile. This time he
used an armature of wood and chicken wire covered with the papier-mâché. After
watercoloring the piece, several coats of varnish completed it's weather proofing.
The piece held up well, but was borrowed by some artist friends of David's
for a show while David was in Canada. The crocodile was transported on
the roof of a van to and from the show. On the way back, tragedy struck. The
wind caught the piece and folded it in half.
Subsequent papier-mâché pieces were based on a plain chicken wire armature. The pieces were painted with poster paints in a non-traditional, anti–watercolor technique.
David's fall term watercolor students participated in his class by emulating their teacher. Instead of working on the flat surface of paper, they too, made three–dimensional objects out of papier-mâché which were then anti–watercolored.
This informal method of teaching watercolor so outraged the official watercolorists on the faculty that they banded together to get David fired but could do nothing as he was on probation for two years because he was newly hired. He was finally ousted because he was considered rude during faculty and teacher's union meetings.
David Gilhooly would get another teaching job in Saskachewan, Regina and continue the controversy with his three–dimensional watercolors and ceramic sculpture.
Last revised February 09, 2006