During the month of June local artists Mike Hamlin and Melissa Moss will be featured in the Woolworth Walk Gallery. Mike creates vessels by hand building or throwing on the potter’s wheel. The vessels are made with a high iron bearing clay. Multiple colored crater or matt glazes are applied. The pieces are fired in an electric kiln to 2163 Fahrenheit with a combination of slow and rapid cooling. Many crater glazed pieces are fired multiple times to obtain an appealing movement of the glaze surface. Mike combines his passion for gardening with his passion for ceramics and designs forms that will complement the various types of flowers and plants that he grows and propagates. The garden is one source of inspiration when designing vessels, other sources include Scandinavian Mid-Century design, Ikebana arrangements, and 12-15th Century Persian and East Asian ceramic forms. Mike wants the work he creates to be soothing to the soul and contribute peace and serenity to an interior environment. Melissa Moss, from Asheville, has a background in color psychology and is well versed in the meanings of colors and their subtle shades and tones. Working with acrylic, pen and ink, and resin, Melissa combines colors in an arresting way, creating a tinted world that is very much her own invention. Melissa’s paintings of delicate trees and otherworldly flowers may depict adorable creatures in peril or pretty pink flowers surrounding a forlorn tree. Tiny details are not always evident at first glance. Often fantastical, this is the subterranean landscape that lies beneath a child’s fairy tale or a Saturday morning cartoon. Her newest “seedlings” collection is inspired by the tenacity of nature and how, even in the worst of conditions, a tree or tiny flower will sprout up. Feeling sad and frustrated about the news in this country and around the world, Melissa started working on these to give her an escape. They are hopeful and tenacious “seedlings” in search of a better world. Come meet Mike and Melissa at the opening reception Friday, June 1st from 5-7 pm. Woolworth Walk
, at 25 Haywood Street Asheville, can be reached at (828) 254-9234. 
Gallery Hours are Monday through Thursdays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fridays 11 a.m. to7 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.