Gail Trunick lives and works in the small, rural northeastern Ohio town of Burghill. Gail grew up eight in a family of nine children. Her father died in a steel mill accident and she was raised by her mother who made her living as a potter. Much of her childhood was enjoyably spent going to outdoor art shows, peddling her mother’s smoked stoneware vessels. From this began a lifelong adventure in the arts, not only for her but also for several of her siblings.

Gail graduated with a BFA from Kent State University with a major in painting in 1980. Soon after graduating, and with the subsequent death of her mother, she found herself more and more drawn to the clay and earth that are her roots. Since this time her artistic concentration has been clay and mixed-media sculpture. Her resume includes numerous one-woman and group exhibitions and she has works included in numerous public and private collections.

Gail says "I work with gritty, grog-filled clay that lends itself to rough, gestural expression. It refuses to smooth or soften into fine detail, but rather gives way to textural statements filled with pronouncements of life's lessons.

My work represents life filled with moments frozen in time, moments where, as humans, we have had to reach for strength, for better understanding and for a deeper depth of meaning."

She continues "these stoneware pieces are completed in a single firing and my finishes are created using a variety of methods and materials. Very loose, painterly applications add texture and layers that convey the building up of time and character. As youth is still soft in color, texture and line, age increases the layers and depth. Often incorporating discarded objects into my sculpture, they not only provide contrast in material but add to the narrative with their individual stories and symbolism."