Ankeny Art Exhibit Features Jewelry Inspired by Ancients, Nature Photography

A stone cutting artist Elyse Demaray will soon put her jewelry on display at the Ankeny Art Center.

Demaray's “Voices of Our Past” exhibit will be displayed in the Side Gallery beginning Oct. 3.

A reception for her exhibit and “Wonders of the Tallgrass Prairie”, displayed in the main gallery, has been set for 5 p.m. Oct. 3.

Demaray, of Des Moines, started making jewelry after taking a metals class eight years ago, but has been heavily influenced by ancient art since she was a child, according to the Ankeny Art Center.

Her latest works have been influenced by African masks, she told the Register.

“The first piece of African art that influenced me was from my graduate school days when I took a class on African art,” Demaray said. “The antelope masks are very elegantly shaped, sort of svelte, and I’ve always been drawn to it, so I used a type of stone called bone jasper that’s in the shape of an antelope and I set it in silver, then created the horns.”

The exhibit  runs Oct. 3 through Nov. 29. at the Ankeny Art Center.

"Wonders of the Tallgrass Prairie" by Gary Tonhouse is a collection of fine art photographs from Iowa's remaining tall grass prairie lands.

The Ankeny Art Center is located in a city park at SW Third and State Front Road.  Gallery hours are Tuesday and Wednesday 9 am to 1 pm, Thursday 4 pm to 7 pm, Friday 9am to 1pm and Saturday 9 am to noon.  The Center is closed Sunday and Monday.