The Craft Center Gallery announced its second show of the summer: Rainbow of Chaos, by Jennifer Rutherford, a UC Davis alumna who's now a university employee and a Craft Center volunteer, teaching glass mosaic.

Rainbow of Chaos is scheduled to open Monday (Aug. 11). Other exhibitions continue at the Buehler Alumni Center and the C.N. Gorman Museum.

Rutherford graduated in 2001 with two degrees: a Bachelor of Science in design and a Bachelor of Arts in English. She works as an administrative assistant in the Office of the Registrar.

She said Rainbow of Chaos primarily features glass mosaics, paintings and knitted garments, with an occasional sculpture or jewelry piece thrown in. Featured themes and inspiration seen in the works include fantasy, costumes, nature, and the UC Davis campus landscape and artwork.

Among the works are some that Rutherford created while taking Craft Center classes in sculpture, painting and drawing, and others that drew on what she learned in other Craft Center classes, such as mosaic.

“Part of the fun of mosaics is the ability to reuse materials, such as a broken computer mouse or sculpture, or a fused glass mosaic that broke in the kiln,” Rutherford said. “One can create abstract pieces, or replicate a real life scene, or just create a fantasy. This show primarily features mosaics and paintings that recreate scenes from life or create a different environment altogether.”

Rutherford said she's finally figured out  has — after several years of struggle and nasty tangles — how to do intarsia and Fair Isle knitting, and thus has been able to create some new patterns featuring intensive design and color work.

She has also started working on freestyle knitting, completing her first sweater in that style out of her own handspun yarn.

She said she likes to design at least one knitted costume piece for Halloween every year. Rainbow of Chaos includes some of those items, including a Rapunzel bodice with detachable sleeves and a memorable, peacock-patterned bathrobe.

Rainbow of Chaos, through Sept. 19, Craft Center Gallery, South Silo. Summer hours: 12:30-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 12:30-7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday.

Our Great Outdoors — Photography by Clyde Elmore, retired Cooperative Extension weed science specialist. Through Aug. 31, Buehler Alumni Center. Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Screen Prints 1970: The Art Institute of Chicago — From the C.N. Gorman Museum Collections: Works by 74 artists who were affiliated with the Printmaking Department of the School of the Art Institute, later known as The Art Institute of Chicago. June 23-Sept. 12, C.N. Gorman Museum, 1316 Hart Hall. Summer hours: noon-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Also, in the Hart Hall lobby: a FLASH! exhibition, A Gathering of Printmakers, organized by artist and Professor Melanie Yazzie in 2006 and curated for this exhibition by students Isra Uz-Zaman and Evelyn Fredericks.

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