Gabriel Shaffer - If You Want Blood

My favorite local, scratch that, my favorite living artist is Gabriel Shaffer who lives here in Asheville. Anna and I are friends with his wfe Suzie and him and we love spending time cooking food, talking enlightenment, politics or the state of the artistic mind with them whenever we get the chance. When Gabriel called me and asked me to shoot some images of some of his new pieces that are going up in the Satellite Gallery for him, of course I said yes.
I love being around Gabe's art as the colors, textures and media he uses blend together to form a whole that is far greater than the sum of it's parts. The way Gabe's mind seems to flow seamlessly onto his canvases causes me to stop and wonder about everything from the beauty in the world to the ability of the heart to provide life or take it away in the blink of an eye. Knowing Gabe personally adds another dimension to his work that allows me to drift more deeply into the details of the recycled paper, bible passages and obscure sci-fi images that find themselves blending perfectly with a mythological creature or city scape.
Certainly my favorite aspect of Gabe's work is his use of colors and the color palette. The way he portrays the pure light energy that radiates to and from his creatures in his paintings inspires me to search more deeply for the power of colors in my own work.

Below are some of the 17 new paintings Gabe is showing in a solo show at the Satellite Gallery located at 55 Broadway.

The show started this past Friday and will be up through September so be sure to drop by and take a look. The digital captures of these pieces of art pale in comparison to standing in front of a 3x5 foot canvas and being able to see all of the dimensions of the different media mixing together.