August 2019: Michelle Gallagher & Dayna Collins

Michelle Gallagher works with clay to create her sculptures. “Anthropomorphic creatures have been my primary focus over many years. Birds, and more specifically corvids, have regularly been turned out as garden guardians. Through ceramic sculpture I explore the complex relationship between form and material, using the alchemy of the firing process to bond the two. The enigmatic figures that result from my practice display human emotions that might often occur during the course of daily life. Generally though, their expressions will specifically portray a peaceful or contemplative mood suggesting a state of serenity during meditation or intense focus and deep concentration, which are all valuable tools in the creative process.”

Dayna Collins title for this show is “Salvage Collage: A Sort of Magic”. Dayna has always loved old books. She hyperventilates at the sight of books which are stained, defaced, torn or marked up. She rips battered books apart, reclaiming their faded fragments, and creates collages using only materials she has excavated.  Dayna’s mixed media pieces reflect the passage of time, repurposing the scraps that are worn and weathered, transforming the aged and tattered pieces into something unexpected and beautiful, celebrating their fragile decay.