FROM COVER: Like Cats and Dogs Exhibit by Gillian Nordlund -

BY SUZY STUMP for WEEKLY VOLCANO 4/24/26 |

Some artists contemplate their calling for years before they land on it. Gillian Nordlund never had that problem.
“I am one of the lucky ones that have always known what to do with my time,” she says.

Nordlund is a Tacoma artist. She says, “Tacoma is my hometown. I’m too lazy to leave.”

There’s humor in that, but if you’ve spent any amount of time here, you know the backdrop she’s working against. Half the year is dark, wet, and gray, which can be depressing, but it also strips away distractions and helps us look for the light within.

“The bold, saturated colors I choose to work with are my stubborn attempt at combatting the long wet gray.”

That tension between environment and response runs through her new show, Like Cats and Dogs. It’s a return, in some ways, to where everything started.

“Drawing is the foundation of my art practice,” she says. “It remains the most accessible way to communicate.”

For this show, she leaned all the way into that foundation, creating large-scale original drawings that put the emphasis back on the physical act itself. Pen to paper. No shortcuts. No filters.

There’s something almost defiant about that choice right now. Like many artists, Nordlund is balancing her practice with a full-time job. That reality shaped the show as much as the concept did. It forced decisions about time, about output, about what was actually possible without sacrificing her personal standards.

“Some people have to work for a living, and like many American artists, I have a full-time job. This continues to inform the way I make art, and it was a huge influence on how I approached this show. I had to decide how much new work I could manage to create while maintaining quality.”

The result is a show that doesn’t try to overreach. It knows exactly what it is.

The subject matter of cats and dogs, at first glance, feels like an easy entry point. Familiar. Approachable. Nordlund knows that and leans into it.

“I wanted to return to the medium that started me off by creating large-scale original drawings that emphasized the manual nature of putting pen to paper. Cats and dogs are some of the most relatable subjects. For the most part, people like house pets. Whether you’re a dog person or a cat person, you can get down with the unconditional love of an animal.”

But it’s much deeper than that. She explains, “For the most part, people like house pets; whether you’re a dog person or a cat person, you can get down with the unconditional love of an animal. There are also many stereotypes for cats and dogs that I wanted to explore.

For me, they represent two sides of the same coin. Lots of people I know have both cats and dogs, and the animals coexist or at least tolerate each other. That’s the lesson I want people to learn from America’s most ordinary creatures.”

Alongside the new drawings, Nordlund is also showing a survey of her Punk Rock Prints. “These prints are somewhat unique in the way they are manufactured, and I wanted to celebrate the technique I created as well as the labor they represent in the show.”

Each piece starts as a black-and-white drawing, then moves through a process involving color manipulation on photocopy machines. It’s a method she developed, refined, and is no longer possible.
“Kinko’s has changed their machines,” she says. “This means of production no longer exists for me.”
This exhibit has both new work and old. “The work in the show Like Cats and Dogs is my attempt to celebrate new work and old and the inherent value in both.”