Gloria Gelo: From Corporate Life to Painting With Paper

<p>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.</p><p> </p><p>00:00 Meet Gloria Gelo</p><p>02:06 Podcast Intro and Format</p><p>03:44 Nerves and Zoom Setup</p><p>04:34 Life in Calgary</p><p>06:13 Cleveland Roots and Canada</p><p>10:17 Fodder School Connection</p><p>11:36 Immigrant Family Story</p><p>15:08 Croatian Traditions and Food</p><p>20:27 Early Art Spark</p><p>23:28 Art School Confidence Crash</p><p>28:13 Business Pivot and Corporate Life</p><p>32:13 Wall Street to LA Move</p><p>34:56 Universal Studios Creativity Win</p><p>36:59 LA Life and Cabinet Business</p><p>38:43 Life in the Valley</p><p>39:52 Business Sold Suddenly</p><p>40:33 Move Back to Calgary</p><p>42:16 Divorce and Remarriage</p><p>43:05 Layoff Sparks Art</p><p>45:00 Finding Mixed Media</p><p>49:36 From Process to Selling</p><p>52:33 Gallery Representation</p><p>55:50 Teaching Goes Online</p><p>01:00:19 Art as Communication</p><p>01:08:07 Typography Origins</p><p>01:13:58 Asemic Writing Tips</p><p>01:16:48 Fodder School Projects</p><p>01:20:49 Final Wrap and Goodbye</p>