Artist Workshop with Ruby Merritt– Upcycled Journals with Gallery Haiku

Create a pamphlet stitch journal using collected papers, then compose haikus and poems inspired by the exhibition, Parallel Paths.

Join us as Ruby Merritt shares her skills in teaching and mixed media arts to create your own unique book from recycled scraps, probably from the WNY Book Arts Center, where she also shows people how to make paper. It will be a very unique, and given her character, promisingly entertaining event. The workshop is in tandem with her current exhibition on view with Cindi O'Mara.

The exhibition, Parallel Paths, celebrates the transformative relationship between a teacher and a student, now artistic peers, showcasing their works side by side. The exhibition unfolds a narrative of growth, guidance, and mutual inspiration, where the bond of mentorship has shaped their artistic journeys and their vocations for art education.

Cindi O’Mara and Ruby Merritt echo one another in their investigations of abstracted landscapes and close-up textures that mirror and mimic nature’s patterns. Their palettes lean toward earthy tones, enlivened by iridescence and bursts of chroma, expressing reverence for the environment’s aesthetic wonder. Merritt often turns toward the unseen—ecosystems and micro-environments hidden from the naked eye—rendered through dense compositions and intricate mark-making. O’Mara complements this with an intuitive, flowing style and layered linework that embody renewal, balance, and close observation.

Together, their artworks create a seamless dialogue, highlighting both the individuality of their voices and the influence they’ve shared along their creative journeys.

On view through January 9, 2026.

Up next: Cindi O'Mara's workshop, "Ephemeral Flower Paintings," on December 13.