About

C.I. Gaspar (b. 1974, Manhattan, NY) is a photographer and mixed media artist working in painting, alternative photographic processes, and mixed media. Working with both antique and contemporary cameras, hand-mixed chemistry, gold leaf, and found materials, she creates one-of-a-kind works that exist at the intersection of photography, painting, and sculpture.

Born in New York City to a multicultural family, Gaspar has lived in Hawaii, California, Alaska, the Olympic Peninsula, Portugal, and now Texas. Her work reflects a long exploration of place, presence, and what it means to belong to land that is always changing—or disappearing.

Photography was her first visual medium. Self-taught from a middle school darkroom, she went on to study fashion design at Saunders Trade and Technical High School, art history at Purchase College, and continued her studies at the University at Albany. After nearly a decade focused on family, she returned to photography as a tool for healing and connection, founding the workshop series and online community PhotogHer in 2011. She is the author of Wintering Well (2025) and was the designer and publisher of Rafaelito's Gift (2014), a children's book by friends of her late brother Rafael, in his memory. Her first photography monograph, Before, is in development—drawn from two decades of photographing places across North America and beyond, places now lost to time, development, distance, or the simple impossibility of return. Her work has appeared in Mozi Magazine (2017 Film Issue) and was developed in part during a 2019 residency at Château d'Orquevaux, France.

Gaspar is her maiden name, reclaimed for her art practice.

Based in Austin, Texas.

Statement

Two bodies of work, one practice. What Holds explores personal memory—identity, performance, class, and the distance between the surface and what lies underneath. What Remains preserves vanishing landscapes using vanishing processes—Texas Hill Country prairie, wild poppies, ancient oaks, and places that have already disappeared or are about to. Made with cameras from 1907 forward, sometimes on film that expired before I was born, then translated through chine collé, encaustic, gold leaf, and hand-mixed pigments brewed from wildflowers and garden scraps.

Both series are about the same thing: what disappears and how we hold onto it. The medium mirrors the content—endangered processes used to memorialize endangered places. Witness work for the things that won't be here much longer.

I returned to old cameras and expired film in 2014. The imperfections, the dust, the scratches, the unpredictability of film—they bridge past and present. Each piece tries to fuse what was, what is, and what's coming. I choose gratitude over grief. I'm seeking simple stillness inside hurried lives.

CV

Recent Books & Publications

• Wintering Well—illustrated guide, 2025
• Rafaelito's Gift—designer and publisher, 2014 (children's book by friends of Rafael, in memoriam)
• Mozi Magazine—Film Edition, 2017

In Development

• Before—fine art photography monograph drawn from two decades of photographing places across North America and beyond, now lost to time, development, distance, or the impossibility of return

Residencies

• Château d'Orquevaux Artist Residency, France—2019

Exhibitions

• Sculpted—Group Exhibition, WCC Art Gallery, White Plains NY
• Group Exhibition—Cherrywood Art Show, Austin TX

Workshops & Continuing Study

• In Plain Sight Workshop with Catherine Just
• Beauty of the Mark—Intaglio and Etching with Belinda Casey, Flatbed Center for Contemporary Printmaking
• Darkroom Workshop, Dougherty Arts Center
• Encaustic Workshop with Amanda Smith and Kevin Tully, A. Smith Gallery

Education

• University at Albany, SUNY—American History and Mathematics
• Purchase College, SUNY—Art History
• Saunders Trade and Technical High School—Fashion Design

Grants & Awards

Building. Check back soon.

Collections

Building. Check back soon.

Other Practices

• Books & Courses—solstice-stone.com
• Custom Platform Builds—atxworks.dev

Media Kit

Press inquiries, interviews, and partnership requests welcome. Visit the Media Kit for downloadable bios, images, and CV.