Gibson lives in the fertile Connecticut River Valley in western Massachusetts and is deeply committed to sustaining local agriculture. Her volunteer work for CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) has deepened her understanding that when local farms thrive, the quality of life is enhanced, and fresh local food is readily available. She and her partner also grow, put up, and store much of their own food and they support their local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm and receive weekly shares of fresh produce in the growing season.

Out of this commitment to local agriculture and appreciation for fresh came the series Gratitude – works celebrating the gift of food. She uses beans and seeds from her own garden and encaustic wax pigmented with herbs and spices to create these altars in gratitude for food. These pieces ask us to consider where our food comes from and how it gets to our table. The blessing she quotes, from the Buddhist Five Contemplations and translated by the Vietnamese monk and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, reads in part: “This food is a gift of the whole universe, the earth, the sky and much hard work.”