For CATHERINE DUDLEY, the visual complexity and imperfect beauty of the urban landscape provides inspiration. Photographing old signs, wrought iron designs, and patterned structures, she builds a collection of "visual souvenirs" which form the basis for her mixed media collages.

"As an artist it is my nature to observe, express, and share my environment; this process is the force that drives my need to create. I find inspiration on a daily basis by extracting visual elements from my surroundings. I find them in the simplest architectural forms, repetition in nature, and in the wide range of color and texture that exists in the urban landscape."

Drawing on her foundation in printmaking, Catherine screen prints the imagery and patterns she records; then, she uses her full range of expertise to intuitively construct, deconstruct and combine the hand-printed imagery with elements of painting and linear drawing to create engaging, yet uncluttered mixed media collage works.

Evolution, she says, is the center point of her process. As in the recently completed series titled Figments, she achieves compositional balance - that sensitive placement of things with an almost casual, carefree manner "that allows all the elements to speak in unison."