Gabbie was born in Nashville Tennessee and raised in Franklin. She was privileged to be born to two art loving parents who encouraged her from a young age to explore the arts. They instilled that working with your hands at skill or craft was imperative for the health of the spirit. After discovering oil paint and academic art in high school, Gabbie knew she wanted to attend an Atelier. A workshop based school, modeled after the traditional Italian academia and French workshop, only a handful were located in the United States. She quickly became enamored with Studio Incamminati School for Contemporary Realist Art founded by Nelson and Leona Shanks in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. The school’s curriculum integrates the classical traditions of realism with the contemporary color pallet of the impressionists. Gabbie knew she would be packing to move to Philadelphia to pursue Studio Incamminati’s Advanced fine art diploma program, requiring a rigorous 4 years of study. After receiving her certificate, graduating and moving back home, she now works in her private studio in Manchester, TN. A small quiet town where she is decompressing from the hustle and bustle of Philadelphia. With a safe space to call her own she is currently unraveling the past 4 years of education, curious and exploring what she and her work will become.
Statement
Portraiture is more than a face.
The arts grant us a unique gift; a quiet and vulnerable look into the human spirit. A single snip of time illuminating our sense of self. The soul is captured on the surface of the paper, like a reflection on the surface of water. People are a natural source of endless inspiration, deserving of constant exploration and discovery.
I reach for a poetic outcome using technical skills. Weaving across the surface with my own personal calligraphy, giving a sensation of texture and form. I let it emerge, layer by layer. Translated for the viewer, another person, looking back.