Jennifer Gillooly Cahoon is an artist who lives and works in East Providence, Rhode Island. She is the owner of the award-winning HeARTspot Art Center and Gallery in East Providence.
A self-taught acrylic painter and mixed media artist — “I’m primarily an acrylic painter who does portraits” — Gillooly Cahoon was originally trained in sculpture at Rhode Island College, graduating with a bachelor of arts degree in 1996.
She is known for her portraits of icons, children with rare diseases and everyday people. In January 2024, he was commissioned to paint Roger Williams for Rhode Island’s secretary of state.
Recently, Gillooly Cahoon painted portraits of some of the area’s local drag queens. Her painting project culminates in an exhibition and auction in support of the LGBTQ+ community at The Stable in Providence.
Here is a conversation with Gillooly Cahoon. The complete interview can be found here.
Celebrating and humanizing drag queens
Jennifer Gillooly Cahoon said that her drag project is about “celebrating and humanizing” groups of people she believes have been unfairly targeted, dehumanized and mistreated.
“What if I was being attacked because I use acrylic paint,” she says. “I just happened to like acrylic paint, and that was my expression, and then ... laws came out against acrylic painters?
“Across the country, we’re seeing this groundswell of initiatives that are aimed at dehumanizing people that are just practicing their art form.”
For her project, Gillooly Cahoon chose Bianca Del Rio as her subject. Once dubbed the “Joan Rivers of drag queens,” Del Rio was the winner during the sixth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
“But in the process of painting her, it made me think about people that I’ve known for 30 years,” Gillooly Cahoon says. “Friends of mine, involved in this art form of drag, have come under fire.”
To create her portraits, Gillooly Cahoon uses reference photographs. She said the trickiest part is choosing the right photo.
“And at a certain point I abandoned the photograph, and it’s just about having a conversation with the painting,” she says.
Gillooly Cahoon says that Rhode Island drag queen legend LaDiva Jonez has been helpful in connecting her to other queens.
She worked at making The Stable, a gay-friendly cocktail bar in Providence, as a friendly venue.
“I’ve already worked with the owner over there, Steve, who’s fantastic and very invested in his community, and I’m directing at least 50% of the funds to the community,” she says.
‘One tiny little redheaded woman’
For Gillooly Cahoon, community is important.
“Having a place that you can gather and bond, and laugh and cry and share. Having a space, almost like a sacred space to do that kind of thing is very important,” she says. “Building relationships is key and making art and posting art and engaging on social media, and having shows those a way that I engage with my community, that’s meaningful and important.
While Gillooly Cahoon calls herself “only one tiny little redheaded woman” in Rhode Island, she believes that her art can help make a big statement.
“If people see a work of art, it makes them feel something or change the way they associate or think about a person, a place, or a group of people,” she says. “That’s powerful.”
