This weekend, local artist Gabeaux will host a closing reception and artist talk for her series “In Astris” which has been on display at Empire Arts Gallery in Kirkwood for the past several weeks. Featuring a series of original stippled drawings alongside prints, this bold body of work explores Western archetypes and mythology of astrological signs.
Since she was a child, Gabeaux has gravitated to art. Her earliest memories involve drawing and painting with her grandmothers and parents who encouraged her to pursue her creative leanings. As a young girl, she had a constant stream of art supplies provided by her mother and grandmothers, and she would spend many hours practicing drawing her grandmothers’ many animals.
Her paternal grandmother had a small horse farm in North Florida where she raised Arabian horses, and Gabeaux was obsessed with drawing them. “One of my earliest memories was of drawing one of those horses and my dad used the home fax machine to send the drawing to her,” she recalled with a chuckle.
The praise and encouragement that Gabeaux received early on cemented her love for art and throughout her school years she further developed a passion for a career in the arts. One of her high school art teachers, Ms. Webb, was a particularly important role model for the young artist. Ms. Webb encouraged Gabeaux to work longer on her art, and not to move on so quickly. By slowing down she found a deep love for the process of illustration.
“Taking those two art classes I had with her I think really drilled into my head that it’s not just a cool thing to do and to noodle at, but I could actually take my art and develop it into something that’s bigger than me.”
Gabeaux later attended the University of Georgia where she received a degree in Art Education, and was so eager to learn that by the time she graduated she was only a few credits away from achieving a double major in drawing and painting. She then landed a job teaching art to middle schoolers, which she enjoyed but did burn her out after a time.
Eventually, Gabeaux returned to school, attending the Portfolio Center – now called Miami Ad School – where she learned graphic design, photography, and copywriting. Afterwards she worked as a graphic designer for 10 years, became an art director in the marketing world, and held that role for an additional 3 years.
The big leap into art
And then, just like that, life happens. In 2015 Gabeaux was married and pregnant, when at 20 weeks gestation she suddenly and unexpectedly developed pre-eclampsia. “It was ridiculously early to get that condition,” she told me.
The rapid development of pre-eclampsia landed Gabeaux in the emergency room of the local hospital, where she experienced a cerebral brain hemorrhage and a seizure. “Thankfully, it didn’t kill me,” said Gabeaux. Unfortunately, the emergency c-section that she underwent to save her life at around 23-24 weeks gestation resulted in the loss of her infant son’s life.
The experience plunged Gabeaux into “intense grief, the deepest grief I’d felt in my life” and during a time where she slowly recovered her body, still afraid of a sudden death in the aftermath of her hospitalization, she needed somewhere to focus her energy.
And so, she went back to her oldest love, picked up a pen and started to draw. From 2015 to 2016, she was working hard to get back to a sense of purpose, and she felt that art was the primary factor keeping her going through those darkest days. “I would literally just sit there and make these stippled drawings – these really elaborate drawings – partly because it gave me something to focus on.”
During that time, Gabeaux started exploring the astrological signs. Even in her evangelical upbringing, everyone around her seemed to know and understand their astrological signs. “There was this interest in astrology. I was just trying to keep my mind up above falling into depression from the grief, so I was studying all these occult subjects out of interest. I thought the zodiac was interesting.”
Despite being known for her stippled style of drawing, which often employs stark contrast in color, or monochrome palettes, she is not limited to illustration in her works. Gabeaux is also a painter, a printmaker, and a muralist. One of her recent murals can be seen on the side of The Reading Room in Decatur, for example. And she told me that when she’s working with prints, murals, and paintings she really enjoys adding in bright and vibrant colors.
Working on large scale murals and paintings is more forgiving than illustration and employs a different part of Gabeaux’s brain. It’s also really special to create something bigger than her, and she often marvels at the fact that she could occupy such a small body but make artwork that is so objectively huge.
If she paints a stroke wrong on a painting or mural, she’s usually able to fix it rather easily and seamlessly. When a mistake occurs in a stippled drawing or in a print, it’s a far different situation. There is often this feeling of “sunk cost” that has challenged her to not give up on a piece after an error, and instead think creatively of how to incorporate mistakes into the finished work.
Her first piece from the “In Astris” series currently on display, featuring the astrological sign Aries, took a whopping 80 hours to complete. As she progressed, she gained confidence and the work went faster. By the time she began working on the Gemini piece the process took half the time at only about 40 hours.
Gabeaux developed her time-consuming stippling style, which is composed of hundreds, or thousands, or maybe even millions of tiny dots that build up to create a finished image, and she has been an active participant in local gallery shows and exhibitions ever since.
In fact, Gabeaux has a selection of works for sale in the Empire Arts Gallery’s shop, she has participated in their group shows, and she is even one of their tattoo customers. When they hired one of her friends, Jessica Jean Kauzmann, as a tattoo artist there she became a regular presence at the space, and it was through these connections that discussions of a solo show developed.
Don’t miss your last chance to experience “In Astris” at Empire Arts Gallery this week, as they will host a closing reception for the exhibition on Sat., Feb. 1. Gabeaux will be present for an artist talk from 3-5 p.m. that day. Learn more about Gabeaux’s work by visiting her website.