A Pocket Full of Biosphere

by Alexandra Gabriel

A Biosphere is defined as the part of the world where Life can exist; as in the living organisms together WITH their environment. This is a collection of multimedia paintings and handmade paper that I understand as landscapes as objects and objects as landscapes. These landscapes are interested in the materiality of depicting the term Biosphere via traditions beyond Naturalistic paintings. While there is some direct representation in the sense of recognizable images and objects, the processes of making these objects is as equally important as the symbolism of images and objects held by them. The paintings and the paper are both built environments. The multimedia paintings grew from a foundation of sewing found fabric into quilt-like canvases. The handmade paper is a recent project completed while an Artist-in-Residence at Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado. This paper is made starting with old paperwork that had been stored for years. Realizing I no longer needed to keep it, the paperwork was shredded and turned back into a pulp that was dried into “new” paper. These handmade pieces are both trash and a foundation for new moves. Like the living organisms within an environment, this collection of art is not just one thing in materiality. All of the fundamental parts of the pieces have their own histories, their own needs, and their own futures based upon their chemical make up and what they are exposed to now that they have been made into Art. Out of my pockets and transformed into self-contained environments.