PROCESS with Hope Gangloff | Alexander McQueen Pre-Autumn/Winter 2022

Hope Gangloff is an American painter based in Beacon, New York, USA. She is best known for her vividly coloured portraiture. “When McQueen studio reached out to me with this project, I was inspired to paint my friend and neighbour, the artist Caitlin MacQueen. Caitlin makes paintings of a mysterious cat-burglar figure who may or may not be an alter ego, and also paints goth party scenes. Together, we selected some tough-looking clothing and accessories from the designs. I had this idea of painting Caitlin in her backyard garden, where she keeps a giant cage for her indoor house cats to lounge outside in the sun. The cats love the cage, and it keeps local birds safe: like the opposite of how a parakeet would be kept in a house filled with cats. It was cold out in March and April. Nothing was blooming. Caitlin started coming over to my house for painting sessions instead. One consistent theme in my work is still lives. Among the articles of clothing borrowed from McQueen, was a glamorous pearl covered head cage which was promptly sucked into a still life vignette on my kitchen windowsill. I worked on a still life painting of the pearl headpiece, in between modelling sessions. When Caitlin modelled for me, she wore a dark denim McQueen dress and sharp black boots. Like a cat, she had the uncanny ability to sit still for hours without moving. Sometimes I work on a portrait composition that becomes a single painting very quickly. Other times a composition may become multiple p