improv
Anne Haley

July 2 – August 2

Opening Reception: Friday, July 3

Anne Haley is the featured artist for July. Anne is awell-known local artist, and a member of Combine Art Collective.

After retiring from a 32-year career in public libraries, including 20 years as director of the Walla Walla Public Library, Haley returned to school and earned her BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland in 2010.

Haley says she loves printmaking because it is a tactile, hands-on experience. She revels in the thrill of the “reveal” as paper is lifted from the plate and enjoys the problem-solving required to plan each successive step. She finds the meditative nature and intense concentration of printmaking both creatively therapeutic and a welcome relief from stress. A shift in focus—or worrying about unrelated events—can spoil hours of work.

A former quilter, Haley draws inspiration for her current body of work from improvisational quilting, a process that embraces freedom from design rules, boundaries, and predetermined intentions. The composition emerges organically as the quilt is made. Similarly, Haley’s watercolors and prints begin with the French Curve ruler template traditionally used in sewing pattern design. The placement of color and the layering of shapes create unexpected hues and forms, making each piece an improvisational exploration.

Haley says her intent is to lose herself—and invite viewers to lose themselves—in the physical experience of printmaking: its sensory nuances, emotional associations, and intuitive energy. For Haley, the urge to create something tangible and meaningful through printmaking and painting is ultimately a fusion of craftsmanship, creativity, and kinesthetic joy.

Last Weekend

Beyond the Surface

Kris Stewart

Thursday, June 4 - Sunday, June 28, 2026

Combine Art Collective is pleased to present new work by member artist Kris Stewart.
In Beyond the Surface, Kris Stewart invites viewers into a world of experimental cyanotypes where the sun itself becomes a collaborator. The collection includes both wall works and artist books, each beginning as a golden wash of sensitizer before revealing luminous shades of blue through exposure to sunlight. These are not traditional cyanotypes, however.

Working wet, Stewart pushes the medium into unexpected territory, incorporating a range of additives to create striking edges, rich depth, and a sense of movement that feels almost alive. Layers of oil pastel and acrylic paint emerge in select pieces, adding further intrigue and texture. The resulting body of work rewards close looking: the more time viewers spend with the pieces, the more they discover. Echoes of landscapes, natural forms, and fleeting memories surface and recede, inviting personal interpretation.

Stewart lives and works in Walla Walla, where she creates cyanotypes, handbound books, and marbled paper from her home studio. She views the world as a tapestry of line and color, form and texture. Beyond the Surface is both an exploration of that perspective and an invitation for others to see the world in a similar way.

On exhibit from Thursday, June 4, through Sunday, August 30, 2026

Please join us in welcoming Ana V. Ramirez and Darin Yates as our guest artists for this summer.

Ana V. Ramirez

Ana V. Ramirez began her art journey as a photographer, but her desire to make something with her hands led her to create mixed media collages using her photos, vintage and handmade papers, drawings, and other materials. Assembling physical objects on paper is an exciting new phase in Ana’s art practice.

The current state of the housing market, something she feels very strongly about, has been a source of inspiration for her work. Ana creates her patchwork houses using architectural elements and the recognizable imagery of a house: the angled roof, bricks and siding, rectangular windows, curtains inside the windows, and so on.

But doors rarely appear on her houses. Doors are a way in, and, as a metaphor for the times, these houses are not meant to be entered. The viewer stands outside and only gets a glimpse inside.

Darin Yates

Darin Yates is best known for his colorful horses, animals, and Native American figurative work, blending realism with vivid backgrounds in acrylic on canvas. He grew up in Alaska, painting side by side with his mother, an elementary school teacher and artist. Encouraged by those around him, he pursued art after high school and went on to attend the Ringling School of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida, from 1992 to 1995, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration.

Darin draws inspiration from photography trips to the Southwest, especially Sedona and Arizona. He hikes through canyons and along trails, then returns to his studio to revisit the images he captured. “The magic of painting comes when I sit down at the easel and imagine the piece in my head with bright colors and loose brushstrokes. I’ve been making art my whole life, and nothing makes me happier than moving someone through my work.”

Past Exhibitions

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