For mixed media artist Gabby Faurot, every piece of her work has “one tiny detail” just for her that she adores — it may not be something that she thinks people would necessarily notice, but just a final touch to add some whimsy.
Faurot is a seasonal ski plane worker in the Alaska Range and Antarctica, and lives in Talkeetna when she isn’t traveling for work. Her work is “heavily influenced by magical realism” and what she calls “whimsical landscapes.”
“A lot of times I can just get distracted, I am just an easily distracted person,” Faurot said. “There will be a lot of times where I am looking at landscapes and I am like, ‘I want to paint that, I want to paint that, I want to do chalk pastel on that,’ and then I just get so overwhelmed that I don’t do anything.”
“I have to remind myself it’s okay to just do a little sketch or literally just paint how I am feeling, with that idea in mind that I am going to paint a mountain, but maybe today I am feeling a little bit spicy — so it’s going to be really heavy lines,” she continued.
Depending on whether she is mobile, her supplies really vary. Sometimes, Faurot sticks to solely digital pieces. Other times, she’s inspired to do oil painting. She usually always has a small portable art stash that she travels with, typically a gouache set and some watercolors, plus a micron pen.
“I have this weird intersection, the duality of me is like, I am a perfectionist, but I also get impatient,” she said.
Faurot says much of her work, including an entire previous art show of hers, was based around the feeling of being small. Many of her pieces are mountain and night scenes, where everything is “way huge,” and reminds her of her own insignificance — “in a very good way.”
“I love to just feel small,” Faurot said. “I like to go to New York to feel super small. I never thought I would like New York, but getting there I was like, ‘I am so insignificant, this is incredible.’”
Sam Davenport is a writer residing in Anchorage. She's a leo and a plant-person, and loves spending quality time with her dog, Aspen. She is a Real Housewives fan and has been called a Bravo historian.
