Recent Park University graduate Elisha Bailey has returned to campus to display her work in the university’s Campanella Gallery.

A Fine Arts major and Graphic Design minor, Bailey received a reception for her exhibit, titled “Sensing the Abyss,” Aug. 19.

The exhibit is a collection of 10 pieces, crafted with paint, metal, paper, wood, old gears and rusted chains. Despite being constructed of the same material, each piece is different from the next. One piece titled “Deepness Within” contains two flowing chains connected by rusty gears against a background of vivid blues and greens with intertwining painted branches.

“I am directing the movement of a viewer’s eye as it snakes around the canvas following my assembled path of shapes and textures,” Bailey said.

Growing up on her family’s ranch, Bailey is accustomed to working with the material in her pieces. The old pieces of metal are part of her childhood and history. Her grandfather, an auto mechanic, taught her the trade as a young girl and Bailey is using her love for both worlds to “tie the two together.”

“This is the stuff I grew up with and worked with,” she said. “This is who I am as a person: an auto mechanic and an artist.”

Bailey said that her favorite piece, “Eternal Roots,” best depicts the merging of her past and present.

“It shows the associations from earlier in my life with my knowledge of art,” she said.

Matthew LaRose, associate professor of art and chair of the Art Department, was present at Bailey’s reception and praised Bailey’s achievement.

“She is very prolific and a very hard worker,” LaRose said. “We are celebrating her accomplishments as an alum. We have about seven or eight shows a year and we want them to be learning experiences.”

Bailey said she has plenty more pieces to add to the collection and is in the final stages of one now.

“Even though I graduated, it doesn’t stop,” she said. “A good student continues to work and put one foot in front of the other.”

Bailey’s exhibit will be on display in the gallery, located in the McAfee Memorial Library, until Sept. 13.