Cyclical / 2022 / 8 works / 40x40 cm on linen / Gabriella Presnal

The series is inspired by the carbon cycle. The works focus on different carbon pools & exchanges in the carbon cycle, such as photosynthesis, limestone & mollusk shells, CO2 in oceans, and carbon in compounds in detrivores, saprotrophs, & producers, and more. The series used recycled and naturally sourced materials, including recycled local newspapers and other paper materials, onion & garlic skins, ash, charcoal, eggshells, basil, dirt, cilantro, a broken snail shell, flour salt relief, and other food waste.

The materials used in the project were primarily sourced by reusing items within the home. I.e. not intentionally harvesting plant materials (ex, berries, dirt, etc) from outside forests or by printing or collecting paper from outside sources (only paper within the home). Food waste turned into inks, such as basil, oranges, or onions, which were also not intentionally bought to make inks, the shopping habits were not changed in order to make more ink colors but rather focused on using everything to its fullest extent.

Rolling Skies & Snail Away have been exhibited at Himmelblau Gallery. Self Surroundings 4.12.22-8.1.23.

Upper Left to Lower Right: Rolling Skies / Bio-inks, dirt, Drain / Bio-inks, Snail Away / Paper mesh, flour relief, dirt, & marker tips, Aerial / Paper mesh, bio inks, Smoke / Ash, Egg Meat / Egg shells, bio inks, Cave Floor / Paper mesh, flour relief, & bio-inks, Drop / Paper mesh.

Peculiar Nature / 2022 / 7 works / 20x30 (3), 30x30, 40x40 (2), 50x60 / Gabriella Presnal

This is a series of experimental paintings completed for a few-week course early this spring. Some are solely acrylic, and some are a combination of acrylic and oil paint. The artist had not used oil paints very much previously, nor had used any painting mediums before, hence, this series was for practicing using them.


The artist experimented with using glossy acrylic mediums, matte acrylic mediums, Liquin medium for oil paints, as well as recycled dirt for one of the paintings. In the piece with dirt, the artist used soil from grocery store basil, then separated the chunkier bits of dirt from the finer dirt using a sieve. Then they were mixed with acrylic mediums and acrylic paints.
Another work had also been the (discarded) experiment of another student, Seyoon Yoon, wherein the artist painted on top of the experiments with their own.


Another piece in the series was used as a palette for some of the other paintings. After becoming more familiar with oil palettes, the artist found it to be quite wasteful (i.e. using baking sheet paper and then throwing it away), hence, they started to put the paint directly on a wooden panel to both not waste the oil paints, as well as document the painting process.

In order of left to right, top to bottom: Roots / 30x30 / oil on wood panel, Blue Skies From Above / 40x40 / Oil, Acrylic, & dirt on MDF board, Cloud Sky / 40x40 / Acrylic on MDF board (in collaboration with Seyoon Yoon), Windy Trees / 50x60cm / Oil & Acrylic on MDF board, Piss-Shrooms / 20x30 / Acrylic on MDF board, Decompose Me / 20x30 / Acrylic on MDF board, Eat Me / 20x30 / Acrylic on MDF board.

  • Starry Night

    2023 / Oil on Canvas stapled to MDF board / 20x20cm

  • Kindergarten Sun

    2022 / Mixed media on MDF board / 20x20cm

  • Fish Bones

    2023 / Oil on MDF Board / 10x10cm

  • It's Tadpoles, baby!

    2022 / Acrylic on canvased MDF board / 20x20

  • I'm Scared Of The Dark

    2022 / Acrylic on recycled painting cloth & MDF board / 20 x 20 cm

  • Pubes

    2022 / Acrylic on recycled painting cloth & MDF board / 20 x 20 cm

  • Combed Pubes

    2022 / Acrylic on recycled painting cloth & MDF board / 20 x 20 cm

  • Baby Micheal

    2022 / Acrylic on recycled painting cloth & MDF board / 20 x 20 cm

  • Lava Lamp

    2022 / Acrylic on MDF board / 20x20

  • Gasolina

    2022 / Dried acrylic scraps, colored pencils, & charcoal on MDF board / 20x20

  • Lava

    2022 / Acrylic, charcoal, & gouache on MDF board / 10x10

  • Tree Song

    2022 / Acrylic n canvased MDF board / 20x20

  • In The Nerve

    2021 / Acrylics, colored pencil on paper / 29.7 x 42 cm

    This small series is about the feelings of delving into one’s dreams. The first, made in January 2021, is a smaller painting of a fellow artist. The paintings are an attempt to visualize those moments in between dreams and reality/when you’re awake. Within that stage, you're pulled to go back into that realm while also being somewhat conscious and able to decide if you want to fall asleep or actually wake up.

  • Reconciliation is Dead

    2020 / Water Color on paper / 29.7 x 38.1 cm

  • Acetylcholine

    2021 / Acrylic and colored pencil on paper / 21 x 29.7 cm

    This piece attempts to represent this with the vines or roots surrounding and latching onto the person while they’re also awake, confronting the dream head-on, but being drawn out of their sleeping state.
    The second, made in October 2021, is a larger self-portrait. The title of the second piece is Acetylcholine as this is a neurotransmitter in which during REM sleep, the more that is used by the body, the more vivid and memorable one’s dreams are. The artist has had very imaginative and vivid dreams since childhood and draws inspiration from this. It is a place almost devoid of time and space as one can forget one’s own existence within them. Within that stage, you're pulled to go back into that realm while also being somewhat conscious and able to decide if you want to fall asleep or actually wake up. This piece attempts to represent this with the vines or roots surrounding and latching onto the person while they’re also awake, confronting the dream head-on, but being drawn out of their sleeping state.

  • This is America

    2020 / Watercolor on paper / 29.7 x 38.1 cm

    ”As I am half American I thought it was important to address some pressing issues that Americans are facing during the pandemic. For instance, I wanted to address how Black Americans are three times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white Americans as a result of various factors like redlining, poverty, and racism that my country was founded on. I also wanted to address some of the cases of brutality against Black Americans. These, especially the latter, are important to realize because, despite crime rates going down, incarceration rates going down, and arrest rates going down, the rate of murders committed by police is not going down and remain the same even in a global pandemic. So while we are all going through a global pandemic, we must recognize that we are not all affected the same way due to race, class, gender, and more.”

  • Sun Flower

    2019 / Markers, Watercolors, colored pencil on paper / 29.7 x 42 cm

  • Painting Study

    2020 / Watercolor & Acrylics on Paper

  • Star Girl

    2017 / Pen and Acrylics on Styrofoam

  • Pink Triangle

    2020 / Watercolor & Acrylics on paper / 29.7x42cm

    Based on the history of the pink triangle. Inspired by Kieth Haring, Rocky Horror Show, AIDs memorial quilt, ACT-up & Grand Fury’s Silence = Death, and of course, the origins; it’s use in WWII concentration camps.