A South Lanarkshire artist's larger than life sculptures made entirely from recycled goods are turning heads.
Mixed media artist Michelle Keenan's Bring Me to Life exhibition is currently on show and attracting a lot of attention at East Kilbride Arts Centre gallery.
Lifelike sculpted heads mounted on the gallery walls depicting the likes of Avatar's Na'vi princess and Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter have been created from recycled materials gathered within the local community.
And Michelle will be continuing the Alice in Wonderland theme when she teams up with fellow artist Venomouse to create outdoor installation Alive in Wonderland in the Arts Centre gardens next month.
Larger than life sculptures and atmospheric lighting will be used to create scenes from the world famous Lewis Carroll books Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
Both exhibitions are free of charge and accessible to all.
Self-taught artist and mum-of-two Michelle, 48, explained to Lanarkshire Live her priority is art for every budget.
She said: "I worked within youth work and the homeless sector for 20 years which gave me first-hand insight into the lack of availability to the arts across the wider community.
"I think this helped drive the inspiration to deliver this type of exhibition and future installations to include access to arts for everyone, social inclusion and art for every budget as my main priorities.
"Over the past two years the local community have helped collect recyclable materials, namely a well-known character from my area called Harry who throughout lockdown continued to deliver papers and essentials to residents who could not get out and about.
"This was the start of community involvement as Harry also collected a huge amount of materials that have went into the sculptures currently on display. He also enlisted a local newsagent in keeping papers that would otherwise end up in landfills.
"J and W carpets in Dalmarnock have also supported in donating used goods that go into making the larger sculptures."
Bring Me to Life exhibition and Alive in Wonderland are an introduction to both the artwork and Michelle who plans to provide free family fun activities along the journey, such as a white rabbit hunt which will go live in the lead up to Alive in Wonderland.
Michelle, from Cambuslang, added: "During the initial stages of the project I was looking into venues and quickly settled on East Kilbride Arts Centre for the initial launch as well as plans of returning in 2023 with an even bigger project.
"The venue is already access friendly and has both an indoor and an outdoor space, it has an amazing, friendly team of staff who go above and beyond to help, and of course its situated in South Lanarkshire where it all began.
"Part of this venture and my future goal is to reintroduce arts to the wider community while having a positive environmentally friendly impact and provide thought provoking art to be enjoyed by all.
"With funding and possible sponsorships hopefully this will blossom into regular events that would be mobile across various towns reaching even wider communities."
Bring Me to Life runs at EK Arts Centre until August 28 and Alive in Wonderland opens on September 1 till 28.
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