WINSTED, CT_ Northwestern Connecticut Community College is happy to announce the gallery at Founders Hall will reopen to the public on Monday, April 4, when COVID restrictions are lifted on campus.

The gallery will host a closing reception on Thursday, April 7, 4 to 7 p.m. for Wendy Briggs Powell, a mixed-media artist based in New Hampshire. The exhibit, Watermarks, Fluid Color, which features numerous works of saturated hues and juxtaposed textures, opened to the campus community on March 3.

Powell’s work is about the relationship between taking control and letting go. Her unique process involves submerging sheets of paper in vats of dye to create abstract color fields. Different forms and marks emerge organically as the dyes dry. She then embellishes the pieces with slick coats of resin or intricate stitches of thread. It’s a messy endeavor, but she finds beauty in the unruly.

“Every time a variable is introduced or altered, the piece changes,” she said. “This process mirrors the way I understand my own emotional life, and the end product reflects the beauty I find there, in all its imperfection.”

To learn more about the artist’s work, visit her website at wendybriggspowell.com. For more information about the exhibit and reception, contact Deb Kline at dkline@nwcc.edu.