North Carolina self-taught artist Gabriel Shaffer, born in 1975, was steeped in art from a very early age. The son of visionary artist Cher Shaffer, Gabriel would nestle in her lap as a toddler while she painted; and he remembers accompanying her to numerous arts festivals and shows during his youth, where he was exposed to many other artists and their works. Always creative, Gabriel spent the decade of his twenties working a variety of jobs, travelling extensively, dabbling in music and poetry, and growing increasingly intrigued by visual art. In 2002, he moved to Chicago in order to explore his identity as a painter more seriously. In March 2004, he relocated to Asheville, and he began to show his works in earnest -- with remarkable results. He has been exhibited at the Outsider Art Fair in New York and the Raw Arts Festival in London. Gabriel's complex images are edgy and haunting, and he has this to say about them: "I bury layers of poetry, names, numbers, photographs, newsprint, salvaged checks or receipts, old letters, anything with language or image, into the work. I like the idea of the mystery behind that, and I also find it fascinating to salvage something that would normally be lost or discarded and incorporating it into the work, giving it a new life or second chance. I scrape with various edges into my paintings, often times scarring the work, but once again the layering of color and form heals these scars and makes them beautiful. Many of my characters consist of otherworldly beings such as angels, visitors, watchers, ghosts and totem spirits for start. I also often see shape shifting creatures that are part animal and man. I like to paint animals as protectors. I also enjoy painting women who are of no distinguishable race, a mix of African, Asian, and South American. I often see large cityscapes with great heads hovering over them, which I judge to be some form of urban gods."
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