For the month of June, Make.Shift Gallery is excited to present new works by local artists, Hannah L. Rivers and Malissa Perry. Hannah L. Rivers, originally from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has been involved in the arts since she was very young. She studied Studio Art, Art History and Dance at Western Washington University and has been working at Bellingham Frameworks since 2015. Hannah’s recent works are based off of aerial or satellite views of locations that have been created or altered by humans. Each piece begins with blind contour drawings of an area and transforms into a finished, multimedia piece. The base reflects the unknown and uncontrolled actions from the hand, while the colors and detail are a reference to the original environment. This process, with its unpredictable outcomes, echoes the difficulty of controlling everything that happens to our surroundings.
Malissa Perry is a self-taught artist, living and working in Bellingham, Washington. With a complex dual diagnosis of autism and Down syndrome, she is almost completely non-verbal, using sign language minimally and dependent on 24-hour care. She began painting on canvas when her beloved caregiver, Nancy Daugherty, gifted her with a blank canvas in Spring of 2015. Since then her work has been featured at Smith & Vallee Gallery, Jansen Art Center, Seattle University, and St. Joseph Medical Center. Malissa’s paintings have been described as “portals” that can transport the viewer into realms of undersea splendor, a feeling of earth and islands from space, or a hint of galactic majesty and beyond. Her unique abstract paintings stir the imagination, inviting the viewer to consider new horizons.
For First Friday Art Walk, Make.Shift will also be hosting an interactive art project in partnership with Ragfinery. Ragfinery is a non-profit textile project with a multi-faceted and powerful vision: to partner with other local nonprofits to provide job training and skill development, educate the public about textile waste issues and solutions, divert textiles from the waste stream, and engage our community in creative reuse, upcycling, and mending. Art Walk attendees are encouraged to bring scraps of fabric to weave into a communally-created tapestry. Supplies will also be provided by Ragfinery. The final product will be auctioned at First Friday Art Walk in July.
For more information about the Art Walk or Make.Shift please visit our website at makeshiftproject.com or contact Jessyca Murphy at gallery@makeshiftproject.com.