Meet Your Neighbor: Gillian Marie Finnell

Gillian Marie Finnell, a well known local illustrator, has been a Niwot resident for 17 years having moved from Seattle. Her mother taught Finnell and her siblings how to draw when she was very young, and she has been drawing her whole life.

Finnell was an art teacher for quite a while in Colorado before she started doing her own illustrations and went back to school to study scientific illustration at California State University Monterey Bay.

You might know her best as simply "Gillian Marie," the artist who creates the illustrations of local places and businesses which appear on calendars distributed by Niwot realtor, Deborah Fowler. Finnell started the calendar with Fowler in 2018.

"The calendars were Deb Fowler's idea years ago, and people seem to like them so we make new ones every year," Finnell said. "We try to represent as many businesses as we can and it's so fun to see them on shopkeepers' desks and counters. I love the small-town vibe of the calendars because I'm a small town girl at heart and appreciate that strong sense of community that we have in Niwot. We all look out for each other and it's a great feeling."

Finnell also designed a logo for the Old Fire House Museum on Second Avenue for the bench on its patio. You can see her artwork forged in metal on the bench, designating the bench as part of the museum.

Finnell also creates maps of local neighborhoods, and personalized watercolor paintings of houses for Niwot citizens, a memorial illustration for Bert Steele, and even a parade banner, as well as murals, ornaments and greeting cards.

Finnell also worked with the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project to design a Colorado license plate featuring endangered wolves. The revenue from the wolf license plate goes towards Rocky Mountain Wolf Project's efforts to help protect the endangered wolves in Colorado and allow them to thrive through educating the citizens of Colorado about wolf behavior and patterns. The organization also helps people coexist with wolves, introducing safer techniques for dealing with wolves to ranchers, along with education on safely reintroducing wolves and where to do so.

"I ended up in the wolf world because my Scientific Illustration program required an internship at the end," Finnell said. "I chose the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project because I love wolves and the timing was great.... They were looking for someone to design a license plate after Prop 114 passed. Things took off from there and I've since done wolf work for Champions for Wildlife, the International Wolf Center and a few others."

In addition to the license plate design, Finnell has also created educational panels for the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project.

"I find my art in so many random places around Niwot, benches, tiles, stone, walls, signage, calendars, posters, ads, stickers, paintings in peoples' homes," Finnell said about the Niwot community. "It's great to feel so supported in this town and I hope I'm giving back that love through my art."

Recently, she's been working with Fowler to design chocolate bar wrappers for the upcoming Christmas season, adding a sweet spot to her artwork.