April 29-May 25

Michele Collier creates clay figurative sculpture using the technique of slab fabrication. She utilizes the spontaneity of form and materials to encourage the unexpected. She plans the piece in her head and then picks up her rolling pin and start working the clay into a slab. She tears away large swaths only to add them back again as she keeps rolling. When the slab has taken on certain energy, she begins construction. As she stretches and compresses the clay, it is as though it has come to life. The surface of the slab becomes the very human-like surface of the sculpture. After much wrestling, the clay and Michele come to an agreement. “I don’t work traditionally because I want to preserve the spontaneity of form that encourages the unexpected. With clay slabs, the unexpected is my constant companion.”

Pictured: "Venus Rising 1"

Don Bailey’s latest oil paintings are rich, vividly colorful abstract landscape. In the collection of paintings, TRANSITIONS: From Winter to Spring, From Spring to Summer" for this show, he looks at the world emerging from the seasons. To quote Don “Not only can I watch the colors that emerge as spring turns to summer and summer turns to fall, I also watch the animals who frequent the area and their responses to the changing landscape. I’ve imagined how the a squirrel sees the play of light before him as he scampers across my fence and how the flowers look between the leaves of trees where crows chatter early each morning.” Bailey is member of the Hupa tribe, raised on the Hoopa Valley Reservation in California. His work honors those who came before him, but winks at the worn clichés about Indian artists living in both the past and modern worlds.
Pictured:"Waiting for Evangeline"