Computer software has revived the term "cut and paste." We execute the commands when writing documents, treating images, or slipping stuff into an e-mail. Cutting and pasting is so simple that it's easy to forget that the actions were originally performed not in a flash with a cursor and a mouse -- but over long hours, with scissors and glue. Remember that? Francesca Gabbiani does.

Gabbiani, 40, was born in Montreal, grew up in Geneva, and is currently based in Los Angeles -- you could say she's lived something of a cut-and-paste life. Now, cut and paste is how she makes her art.

Gabbiani's medium of expression is through colored paper collages. Her large-scale pieces can consist of hundreds of strips of paper meticulously arranged on airbrushed or patterned backgrounds. She does this with such technical excellence that at first glance the works can appear to be photographs or realist paintings.