Courtesy LEFT: Coffee filters, sugar packets, embroidery thread, beads and handmade paper make ‘Imperial Sun.' MIDDLE: ‘Circean Goat' meshes a coffee filter, embroidery thread, jewels and handmade paper. RIGHT: ‘Sweet Addictions'uses alcohol boxes, empty cigarette boxes and other miscellaneous addictive trash.

WHO: Laurel Gibson

BEST KNOWN FOR: Using unconventional materials ranging from used coffee filters and sugar packets to romance novel covers to pantiliners. She also creates ceramics from Egyptian paste (a self-glazing clay used for thousands of years). Symbols from world religions and ancient civilizations are common in Gibson's work; she strives to emphasize the similarities among cultures rather than the differences.

CURRENTLY: For “Sweet Addictions” at C-Art, Gibson embroidered and drew on used coffee filters to enhance the colors, shapes and patterns of the coffee stains. When working with coffee filters, which she sometimes dyes with tea, she looks for familiar shapes, “sort of like a Rorschach test.” Why used coffee filters? “You start with this already rich background,” she said. “The colors and the way they swirl is really beautiful. You can't create that. There's this sense of chance.” She outlined images of Buddha, the Virgin Mary and yoga poses, among others, and mounted them on backgrounds of handmade paper.
 
The back room of C-Art holds an installation examining physical addictions and the weakness of the body, in direct contrast to the spiritual transcendence explored in the other work. Gibson used cardboard beer and wine cartons sewn onto coffee filters to create a large quilt. Candy wrappers and cigarette boxes adorn a pedestal topped with a labyrinth made of granulated sugar and surrounded by liquor bottles and empty cigarette packs.

ON THE WEB: myspace.com/laurelgibsonart

BACKGROUND: Gibson, who lives in Pipe Creek, grew up in Arizona. She received her BFA in ceramics from Northern Arizona University in 2001 and her MFA in ceramics from UTSA in 2005.

CHECK HER OUT: “Sweet Addictions” can be viewed by appointment through March 9 at C-Art, 1426 W. Craig Place. Call (210) 380-6508. A closing reception takes place 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, March 5.

JESSICA BELASCO | 210SA CONTRIBUTOR