So you and a friend were having lunch – maybe at Shortfield’s – when you decided it would be fun to see what was new at the ever-changing White Rabbit Gallery. After carefully crossing the street and parking lot, you enter the Gallery through the cheerful yellow door. A friendly artist greets you. During the exchange of pleasantries you are glancing around the gallery, getting the lay of the land, when it hits you. What is the big “it”? At the gallery, we call it “the Michelle Petty Effect”. It’s what happens to anyone when they first encounter the amazing creatures that inhabit Michelle Petty’s world.
It’s no wonder that Michelle grew up to become an artist. Her father was an artist and art conservator. Michelle passed her talents along to the next generation, as her son is an artistic blacksmith. Her daughter is a goldsmithing jeweler and works at the Lynn Strong Studio.
Michelle calls herself a teaching artist. She has taught art to all grades in public schools and numerous art centers across the Upstate. Today, she shares her talents at the “Holly Springs Art Center” in Pickens.
Michelle traces her artistic development from vessels to the female shapes she calls “my ladies.” The ladies became face jugs. Now, she is working on other wonderful critters that inhabit her world. Each is unique Herons, a horse, owls, cats… So many animals!
If you come by for a visit you might even see the elusive possum. We can’t seem to keep them in the Gallery!
Cathyrn Rice