MACC Event Coordinator/Curator Cheryl Gleason adjusts artwork by Judy Bowman at the collage and assemblage exhibit running through May 24. Photo by Margaret Snider

RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - The current exhibit at the Mills Station Art and Culture Center (MACC) is COLLECTive Concerns: Collage and Assemblage. Cheryl Gleason, MACC Event Coordinator/Curator, belongs to a group called Association of Academic Museums and Galleries, which allows her access to this type of niche show.

“Unless you work at a university or in a museum or university gallery you probably wouldn’t be exposed to a show like this very easily,” Gleason said.

This exhibit includes artwork from twelve artists:  Judy Bowman, Elaine Crivelli, Kristy Deetz, Virginia Derryberry, Reni Gower, Craig Hill, Errin Ironside, Sue Johnson, Axelle Kieffer, Alexandra N. Sherman, Edwin Shelton, and Michele Stutts. 

Amy Lynn Torres is the spotlight artist upstairs at the MACC through May 24, with her collage and mixed media exhibit, “In Every Grain of Sand, the Universe.”  Photo courtesy Amy Lynn Torres

“The majority of them are from Midwest to East Coast, and there are none that are past Chicago this way,” Gleason said.  

Collage is a good way for anybody to start doing creative expression. 

“You don’t need a huge budget or lots of stuff, you can do it very easily,” Gleason said. “This show is a very good one.”

Amy Lynn Torres provided the solo show this month, upstairs at the MACC. It is titled “In Every Grain of Sand, a Universe.” Torres is a local artist and member of Rancho Cordova Arts and has been making art since she was a child. 

“In fact, my mother loves to mention that I won second place in a city-wide art festival in Chicago when I was six years old,” Torres said. 

After a break during high school and college, Torres focused for 15 years on film and digital photography.

Amy Lynn Torres is a local artist and member of Rancho Cordova Arts and has been making art since she was a child. Photo courtesy Amy Lynn Torres

“Collage is currently my favorite medium,” Torres said.  “I get buried in paper in my studio workshop, and oftentimes I find glue in my hair and paper scraps stuck on the soles of my feet. I metabolize my daily experiences and life’s journey through my creative work.”

Gleason said she chose Torres for the solo show because “her work is very stunning, and it also speaks to the same sort of theme of different current events and things that are going on in the world. It went really well with this show because I wanted to create synergy between the upstairs and downstairs showing. Since it is collage month, I wanted to have a collage artist.”

Both exhibits will be on view at the MACC, 10191 Mills Station Road, Rancho Cordova, during open hours of 2 to7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays through May 24.