AKZ Did you grow up in a creative household?
MG Both my parents are painters and my brother's a painter. I grew up in an old potato farm that my parents converted into studios, so that's always been a huge influence on my work and my identity.
Then I went to RISD and I've been living and working and showing in New York for six years.
AKZ Did you ever reject art to differentiate yourself from your parents?
MG Not really. I think the privilege of growing up in a creative household is that there was such an openness to do whatever you want to do.
And because of that openness, I really gravitated to their practice and their interests– there was so much room for me to make my own choices in a really beautiful way.
AKZ I love that. And was it always painting or did you play with different mediums?
MG I think it's always been painting. However, I do think a lot about the crossovers of painting and filmmaking, and painting and photography. So that's something I kind of want do more of, but it's always been painting and drawing.
AKZ And when did you transition from canvas into panel?
MG That would be the end of college. I have a really hard time with canvas. I find it stiff and I don't like its tooth texture.
The flatness is something I strive for and you can get that on canvas with a lot of work, but a big part of my practice is finding efficiency. And panel is the most efficient way to achieve flatness. I also wouldn't be doing diptychs and triptychs if it wasn't for panel, and it allows for really fun storytelling of linear, long, of almost scroll-like paintings. The beauty of working on panel is also that you can use any material on it.
AKZ Did you go straight into full-time painting after school?
MG No, I've done a million things. I’m a teaching artist, I've watched kids, I've worked in studios.
My studio is actually next to my house, so it’s such an amazing thing where I'm able to go do jobs and still get ample time for my practice.
AKZ That sounds like an incredible flow. Can you walk me through a day in your studio?
MG The first thing I do is sit and think about all the choices I made before, and sort of rank them internally. What also really helps is just starting off with cleaning the studio, and then coming up with a plan.
We also have a lot of storage downstairs, and going through older work is definitely part of my process. Sometimes before I start painting, I switch out paintings from storage and look at things that I still have.
This painting, for example, I’ve had for three years, and I've been really thinking about it recently and never want to give up because it's one that I come back to. Also, going through my flat file of old collage materials, photographs I print out, all my drawings.
AKZ It's almost like you make an exhibition of your work for yourself.
MG I always have a wall like this in my studio or my house that is totally for me. It almost feels like a teen girl with a bunch of posters in her room. It's not necessarily things I'm looking at, but just having these images around helps fuel the work.
I have this mosaic from a museum in Naples. This was an iPad drawing I made. This is a wedding photo that I found on Pinterest. All these things live in the same world for me even though they might not necessarily be related.
AKZ Is that world constantly evolving or do you cycle through similar themes?
MG I cycle through themes. I had a fixation with this woman Holly Madison who was Hugh Hefner's girlfriend in the early 2000s. And there’s this treasure trove of photos that they have at the Playboy mansion that are very strange and very sad, but also sort of beautiful.
There was this period where I was drawing all these pictures and then painting or collaging the them.
Now I've been a lot more interested in interiors. This is a Peter de Hooch painting with a clip from The Sopranos.
  
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AKZ In cycling through old works, what have you noticed about the evolution of your practice?
MG I always strive for more looseness. Even though I think of myself as a painterly painter, there's still room to just be less precious and less fearful.
In the past I would feel the need to render and feel that something's finished, when that doesn't have to be. And so seeing myself become more comfortable with looseness is really fun.
AKZ Do you ever go back into the pieces?
MG I'm unbelievably sentimental in a way that's ridiculous. So I’m like, this holds time and space and I have to honor that.
I think what I do instead is reuse imagery.
I made this painting last year from a photo I found on Flicker from the US Navy of this guy holding a fake gun, and he's in a pool practicing for the military. It’s a very upsetting, strange image, and I can just keep painting it.
AKZ What makes you feel inspired?
MG Definitely art history and pop culture. Parties are also amazing to paint from, and they always have been if you think of Manet or Renoir.
When I'm out with my friends I notice how people are sitting and moving through the space, and then I'm able to combine that with references.
AKZ How do you capture those moment?
MG I take photos. I also go through long periods of sketching outside, but it’s been more photography as of late.
AKZ What are your favorite spots?
MG I love drawing at the beach. People are so uninhibited, and it’s very easy to draw the figure because people are wearing a lot less clothes. It’s such a microcosm of American summer culture, and the paintings just create themselves.
AKZ I love that too, because not only is the figure easy to capture, but people’s personalities are really exposed as well.
MG Yes, totally. Family dynamics are very exposed, everyone’s so close together, I know exactly what you're talking about, I know what your kid is pissed about, what you're eating. The beach is the perfect representation of everything I like about painting.
AKZ How did you land on your visual language?
MG I've always painted like this. The figure has to take up most of the space for the painting to make sense to me, and the color palette feels important.
AKZ Is there any piece in the room that represents a breakthrough?
MG This one I'm working on right now. I've been making stencils which has been really fun, and embracing the drive for looseness. I've been thinking about this animation of a woman turning and entering a different room.
AKZ Do you ever experience creative block?
MG oh my god all the time. I had this relief recently where I realized I have all this imagery I've been thinking about and saving for years. I think it's more meaningful to dive into these images you already have than feel the need to keep generating, and that has felt freeing.
AKZ That’s such a nice way of thinking about your archives. What's something you hope people feel when they look at your work?
MG Humor, definitely. But recently, tenderness feels more important.
AKZ Is that how you feel when you're making work?
MG Yeah.
AKZ Who are some artists that inspire you?
MG The Jennifer Packer and Milton Avery shows I saw recently. They’re both such powerhouses of making emotional paintings in such different ways. I’m also always looking at Manet and Velazquez.
I love the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto, it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. And I love Beckmann, he’s truly a master of that looseness that I'm trying to achieve.
AKZ Do you ever go to live figure drawing?
MG Yeah, and it's such a good exercise. I felt really humbled getting back into it.
Having that knowledge there is why I'm able to make these. That baseline of knowledge allows you to go off and make things different.
AKZ It gives you agency to make things a certain way with intention, rather than lack of knowledge.
MG Yes exactly, I'm choosing for something to look this way, and sometimes I'm grappling over choices.
AKZ How do you land on something when you're grappling?
MG You literally have to just keep painting, you have to work through every choice. And it's hard, but the only way to make the correct choice is to try all of them.
AKZ Do you work everything out on the painting?
MG I actually go back to sketching. I’ll take a picture, send it to my iPad, and draw on the painting on the iPad. Sometimes I print that out, and then I'll go back to the painting.
AKZ Last thing–what is the biggest challenge of a young artist starting out, and what's the greatest benefit?
MG The biggest challenge is making sure you have the time. You have to do everything in your power to make the practice your number one priority.
The best thing is having a million other painters at my disposal and feeling like I'm part of a lot of other people making work, and just talking about painting all the time.
Even when you're in someone's studio and you're not talking about work, you're in conversation with these objects in the room. I kind of think of them as beings.
