• “Joyeclyn, BABA, Azad and Censored”

  3 Dimensional Sculpture Mask

• “Oh”

  Mixed Media Assemblage

• “Zuberi”

  3 Dimensional Sculpture

• “Scrape Warrior”

  Leather Assemblage

• “Pop-eyed”

  Mixed Media Assemblage

• “Ayoka”

  Mixed Media Assemblage

artist bio

Rhonda Gatlin-Hayes is a self-taught artist. As a child, she drew birds, butterflies, flowers, and people, crocheted, experimented with corrugated cardboard, fabrics, & found objects, to create something new and fun out of broken or discarded items.

Rhonda’s first major project as a was a three-story Victorian dollhouse made of cardboard boxes, toilet paper rolls, dollhouse miniatures, carpet & fabric scraps leftover from projects her mother had completed.

Upon her mother’s death, who was an avid seamstress, quilter, and crafter, she inherited lots of sewing notions, buttons, various types of fabrics, and many different crafting items. Inspired by the idea that broken, devalued, disregarded or unwanted items can be re-purposed and re-elevated by creating art from these inherited and found objects, Rhonda’s creativity re-emerged.

Rhonda’s detailed assemblages and collages depict whimsical but lifelike, playful works of art incorporating fabric, leather, beads, glass, wood, screws, nails, buttons, wire, metal, shells, rocks, minerals, bone, string, paper, feathers, nuts & bolts, uniting unlikely objects to show the beauty in their differences.

Celebrating the strength of the human spirit, these representational masks depict and carry the message that everyone has worth and that no one should be taken at face value, but that everyone should be looked at more closely, for what lies beneath.

Fascinated by the uniqueness and individuality of others, this body of work is the result of instinctive creativity that is fueled by what is behind the “Masks We Wear.”

artist statement

As a self-taught artist, I’m inspired by the idea that broken, devalued, disregarded and unwanted items can be re-elevated and re-purposed.

These detailed assemblages and collages depicting whimsical, lifelike, and playful 3D creations that unite unlikely objects and show the beauty in their differences.

These representational masks depict and carry the message that everyone has worth and that no one should be taken at face value.

Fascinated by the uniqueness and individuality of others, this body of work is the result of my instinctive creativity that is fueled by what is behind the “Masks We Wear.”

proficiencies