Arapahoe Libraries is proud to host art exhibits each month at Eloise May, Koelbel and Smoky Hill libraries. Library galleries offer the community a place to view a variety of art at no cost while also providing visibility to local artists. A volunteer art selection committee selects exhibits based on artistic quality, variety of exhibits and the suitability of format for each exhibit space.
Have a question about the galleries or interested in showcasing your art? Visit the Art Galleries page for more information.
Joy Redstone
Name of Exhibit: Wounds to Wisdom
My art can be described as process art, as each piece speaks to a memory or an emotional experience. The fragmented objects make a whole, speak as a testament to healing, and offer an opportunity for the viewer to reflect on their own intrinsic wholeness. My work uses organic and inorganic materials, both found and foraged, assembled with resin. I use natural objects because I find so much solace walking, and I use what I see to tether me to the here and now. I invite you to the patterns within the patterns.
Swagath Vajjala
“Through my lens, I capture the raw beauty of Colorado and the vast American landscapes to inspire a deep connection to our planet. Each image serves as a reminder of nature's fragile wonder, calling for us to protect and preserve these landscapes for future generations.”
This collection is a quiet tribute to the wild beauty of the American West. As a landscape photographer, I focus on capturing nature in its purest forms — from sweeping mountain vistas and vibrant wildflower meadows to dramatic nightscapes under starlit skies. These photographs invite you into the heart of Colorado’s rugged peaks and the timeless serenity of Utah’s landscapes. Each image was created in a fleeting moment of stillness or awe — a golden sunrise, a clearing storm, the hush of twilight, or the soft glow of the Milky Way. My work is driven by a deep reverence for the land and a desire to preserve its magic through visual storytelling. I hope these scenes awaken a sense of wonder, peace, and belonging. And above all, I hope they remind us of the beauty we must protect.
What is your favorite piece in the show and why?
My favorite art piece from this show is the photograph "Where The Gods Roam." Ever since I visited this place, nestled deep in the rugged mountains of southwestern Colorado, I’ve been in love with its beauty. Every summer, the valley is adorned with vibrant wildflowers. While hiking through this magical place, I came across a patch of Pink Paintbrush flowers beside a peaceful creek. It felt like everything aligned perfectly for this image — the sunlit snowy peaks, the gentle brook, and the blooming wildflowers. A perfect Colorado moment. Witnessing this view in person almost felt surreal.
What motivates you to create?
It’s the fleeting moments in nature that move me — the glow of a sunrise or sunset spilling over mountain peaks, the hush that follows a clearing storm, the quiet presence of wildlife in their element, birdsong weaving through spring air, wildflowers painting the valleys with colors, or stars scattering like diamonds across the night sky. These are the moments that stir something deep within me, urging me to capture the wild, untamed beauty of our planet.
Who are your biggest artists influences?
There are many great and talented photographers who inspire me in different ways, but here are a few whose work I admire the most: Marc Adamus, Joshua Snow and John Fielder.
What message do you want your art to convey to viewers?
It is our shared responsibility to protect our planet. Through my photography, I hope to inspire not only appreciation but also action to help preserve these natural wonders for generations to come.
Kathryn Winograd
Name of Exhibit: The World I Carry Now: Photographs and Poems from the Riparian
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This exhibit comes from the walks I’ve taken, camera in hand, along the South Platte River and Chatfield Reservoir. Through the photographs I took and the poems that followed, I found how beauty lies in the most familiar places; and how the art we make of the ordinary world we know and love may one day be the relics of that world. I’ve lived here thirty four years now, and the birds I easily found any day on the shore, on the logs, in the trees, in the water, seem to be vanishing now in the push of development.
Kathryn Winograd is an award-winning photographer, essayist, and poet. Her latest book, This Visible Speaking: Catching Light Through The Camera’s Lens, combines photography, poetry, and prose. Short listed for the 2025 Eric Hoffman Awards Grand Prize, it received an honorable mention for the Art book category. You can contact her through her website kathrynwinograd.com.
As a poet and photographer, I get to discover the beautiful connections that exist between the visual images of nature and the written images of imagination. I look for the little “doorways” in the exterior world that can lead me through to the interior world of emotional and spiritual landscapes. What can be better than walking through a woods, a river, a field by day, and then re-dreaming it through the beautiful words of poetry?
What is your favorite piece in the show and why?
It’s a hard question to answer. I cherish the poem each photograph has led me to. I suppose “Corridors” because I almost didn’t stop the car to take the photo, even though I knew from seeing it from the corner of my eye that the pelican against the bare trees reflected in the water of the reservoir was like the image of a dream. But I was cold; it was late; the dog was hungry. Lesson learned? Always take the photo!
What motivates you to create?
In so many ways my mother. She was extraordinarily gifted in so many arts: writing, sewing, needlework, quilting, piano. I grew up learning from her how to do everything and how important the solitary time of creation is in life. I’ve been writing poetry since I was a little girl, so finding this happy passion late in life for photography and the poetry it leads me to has been wonderful and motivating in itself.
Who are your biggest artists influences?
In creating my book, This Visible Speaking: Catching Light Through the Camera’s Eye, I discovered the early pioneers of photography back in the 1800s, like William Henry Fox Talbot, Louis Daguerre, Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Stieglitz, and Dorothea Lange, and was taken aback by them and the literary giants of the day who were so enthralled by this new kind of “Drawing with Light,” as photography was first described. I recently went to the first Women’s Outdoor photography conference by the Outdoor Photo Alliance and was awe-struck by the beauty and poetry of the photographs shared by the women artists there. This summer, I take a workshop with the photographer Keith Carter on the Eloquent Image, opens a new window. Carter is called the “Poet of the Ordinary,” and I am so struck by his work.