The Old Schwamb Mill is pleased to present current exhibit in the gallery: Curation & Connection: Four Collage Artists. In this exhibit at the Mill, four artists – Sharon Berke, Ann Miller, Karen McCarthy and Jennifer Lee Morrow – showcase their work. On Saturday, October 21, the artists will present a Gallery Talk focusing on what inspires their work.

Sharon Berke is a visual artist whose work focuses on paintings and collages. She says, “I create visual dissonance by fragmenting objects and interior spaces.” After earning her bachelor of fine arts degree in painting and printmaking, she spent her 20s traveling and working in framing, catering and gardening. Approaching 40, she realized that she needed to return to serious artmaking, and began her “Rearrangement” series.

Ann Miller is a mixed-media artist based in Waltham, Massachusetts. For the past 20 years, she has studied collage, printmaking, drawing and sculpture. She now focuses on ways that these disciplines can be combined, primarily on paper. Her process “is experimental and exploratory, building systems in space based on finding new marks and relationships as I go.”

Karen McCarthy is a collage and fiber artist who takes similar or disparate parts and melds them into something new. Karen is fascinated by the painting and printing methods she uses, each of which offers a wide expanse of textural possibilities. Her work is often described as evocative and mysterious. Her background in fiber continuously inspires her approach to artmaking.

Jennifer Lee Morrow is a mixed media artist with a strong interest in paper and textile techniques. She holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and the MFA from the University of Kansas/Lawrence. Her current pieces are “bricolage” created from a diverse range of available materials. The narratives center on societal relationships illustrated through the physical relationship of materials through juxtaposition and layering.