Gloria Gelo: From Corporate Life to Painting With Paper

Host Wendy Solganik introduces season 6, episode 3 guestGloria 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 adiscouraging 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 laterdivorcing 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 Gelo02:06 Podcast Intro and Format03:44 Nerves and Zoom Setup04:34 Life in Calgary06:13 Cleveland Roots and Canada10:17 Fodder School Connection11:36 Immigrant Family Story15:08 Croatian Traditions and Food20:27 Early Art Spark23:28 Art School Confidence Crash28:13 Business Pivot and Corporate Life32:13 Wall Street to LA Move34:56 Universal Studios Creativity Win36:59 LA Life and Cabinet Business38:43 Life in the Valley39:52 Business Sold Suddenly40:33 Move Back to Calgary42:16 Divorce and Remarriage43:05 Layoff Sparks Art45:00 Finding Mixed Media49:36 From Process to Selling52:33 Gallery Representation55:50 Teaching Goes Online01:00:19 Art as Communication01:08:07 Typography Origins01:13:58 Asemic Writing Tips01:16:48 Fodder School Projects01:20:49 Final Wrap and Goodbye