A Vision to Reality

Gills Rock Coffee Shop will exhibit the works of Kristine Franzke beginning May 24.

Franzke said, “I am an art teacher by day and creator of ‘stuff’ all the rest of my waking hours. I have always collected stuff, and manipulated it with paint, chalk, and pencil, turning it into something completely different from what it once had been.”

Although Franzke works in many mediums, this exhibit will feature her mosaics. She created her first mosaic from pieces of her grandma’s butter dish, broken (accidentally, of course) by her husband. This had sentimental value, and was made into a picture frame. Friends now bring her broken dishes, and she embellishes things with bits and pieces of their lives. Other things might find their way into her art: old jewelry, beads, etc.

Franzke says, “The hunt for things to include in my mosaics is part of the thrill.” Her need to work sculpturally needed to be fed, so her frames took on a three-dimensional quality as she began creating birdbaths, planters, masks, fish and other animals. She has embellished things as small as shoes and as large as a fireplace. “From vision to reality, finding the right piece for the specific spot is like doing a puzzle,” she says. “It relaxes me, it makes me happy.”

Gills Rock Coffee, open 8 am – 3 pm, is located at 12625 Highway 42 in Gills Rock. For more information call 920.854.9907.