Four female artists examine the function and meaning of memory and its role in nature and nurture in shaping cultural norms for women. Through vastly different life experiences, creative process and inspiration are highlighted in a woman’s life through visual representation in various mediums. The exhibition is a feminine and delicate blend of memory and imagination.

A Dozen Dresses: The ReCollection by Diana Greene (Winston-Salem) is a beautiful photographic narrative featuring photographs of different dresses from various stages of Greene’s life. “This series is unsentimental. It explores the theme of fashion as personality, clothes as symbols, dresses as conduits for dreams and mistakes, identity and loss.” Primoris Ortus by Allison Luce (Mooresville) explores concerns about fragility and femininity. Using clay as a metaphor for the body, she creates structures that are symbolic of the body and soul. Kristi Ryba (St. John’s Island, SC) uses vintage family photographs to create paintings based on the iconography and the sacred hierarchical messages of Medieval and Renaissance altarpieces and illuminated manuscripts in Significant Moments. Kathy Sosa’s series of portraits titled Adornment and Identity is a celebration of women. Her two series, Huipiles, depicting women wearing the traditional blouses of the Mayan, and Trees of Life, with women wearing elaborate headgear filled with symbols of what the women are thinking about, are influenced by the rich cultural heritage of Mesoamerica.

Join us for the Opening Reception on Friday, May 31. Informal gallery talks with the artists begin at 5pm. Reception is from 6-8pm. Free and open to the public.

For more information, visit www.waterworks.org. Waterworks is located at 123 E. Liberty Street in historic downtown Salisbury.