[fade]MESA COLLEGE ART GALLERY

LUDICROUS TALES:
A TOPSY TURVY QUARTET

In the exhibition Ludicrous Tales: A Topsy Turvy Quartet four international artists residing in our region create an enchanted environment. The luscious paintings of Gloria Muriel pair beautifully with a succulent ceramic banquet by Beliz Iristay and Irene de Watteville and wondrous mosaic trees by Aida Valencia. Visitors are invited into a space dripping in decadence and more than a dash of whimsy as magical creatures and fantastic beasts break bread.

Gloria Mulriel’s canvases and drawings pulsate with dazzling colors, fluid sinewy lines, and mysterious iconography; inquisitive faces with wide-set eyes emerge and peek out from lush backgrounds woven from leaves and flowers. Muriel’s subjects emerge from her imagination and are based on the artist’s experiences and emotional states of mind. These young girls, mermaids, and nymphs honor the power of the Feminine and women’s spiritual connection to Nature. For this exhibition, Muriel utilized the brilliant cobalt, ultramarine, and turquoise blues of traditional Talavera ceramics in florid symmetrical compositions to respond to Iristay and de Watteville’s porcelain pieces.[/fade]