Local woman works on view in Centerville church

How to go

What: Collages by Marsha Pippenger

Where: Centerville Art Gallery, 155 W. Spring Valley Road, Centerville

When: Continues through July 31

Artist reception: 6-8 p.m. July 19 (a Friday)

More info: (937) 433-7151 or www.centervilleohio.gov

Inspiration for artful design comes from many places. For Marsha Pippenger of Harrison Twp., her son’s trip to the Western Wall in Jerusalem in 2004 inspired her design for a prayer wall at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton in 2011, as well as a follow-up collage and drawing series, now being shown at the Centerville Art Gallery.

“The prayer wall got me to thinking about walls in general, and for some reason, the colors of certain emotions and prayers,” Pippenger said. “Is joy a blue wall, or is that peace? Maybe joy is a red wall. What color is compassion? Could an empathy wall be green, rather than green for envy?”

These were some of the questions she contemplated as she created these collages and colored pencil drawings in all manner of hues. She is presenting 10 colored pencil collages, nine small collages on canvas, and eight large-scale collages on canvas.

She likes to call them her paper paintings. These works have several coats of clear varnish that precludes the need for glass protection.

Just as prayers and concerns are tucked into the cracks and crevices of the prayer wall, she has interspersed color, texture, and geometric design for the viewer to discover. A series of three 6-inch-by-18-inch panels are particularly intriguing, with grid patterns emerging among warm golds and slashes of red.

“Perhaps one of these colored walls will speak to you of hope, peace, joy, or compassion,” Pippenger said. “Maybe spending time with one of these walls will help you channel that quality. Then you can take it out to the world.”

Pippenger has a bachelor’s from Ohio Northern University, and a masters of humanities degree from Wright State University, where she teaches art history. She’s also a studio art/art history instructor at Kettering College of Medical Arts. She was the former owner of Conversation Pieces Gallery in Tipp City, and shows her works at the Cannery Art & Design Center in Dayton.