She’s So Collectible!
Curating the Richard Machen Collection
Dr. Kidd explains the collection’s significance —“Art begins and ends in emotion. Within it lie style, process, and concept. These pieces form living maps of human existence—six women artists and one visionary collector tracing the contours of our shared future.”
｜Curator｜
Dr. Sophia Kidd
Associate Professor at School of Literature and Journalism, Sichuan University, Lecturer at the Sichuan University of Foreign Languages, Lecturer at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and Lecturer at the University of Bochum. Dr. Sophia Kidd is the Founder of Words Art International, Director of Igneus Press, and Editor of Literature and Modern China, a journal of School of Literature and Journalism, Sichuan University. Dr. Sophia Kidd is a research curator, art critic, translator, and writer who has lived and worked in Chengdu for over ten years, working closely with Chinese scholars, artists, and specialists in the field of art and facilitating exchanges between them and their counterparts abroad. She has recently published a monograph Culture Paves the New Silk Roads(Palgrave, 2022.) Kidd also wrote a chapter that appeared in Spatial Literary Studies in China, (Palgrave, 2023.) Kidd also edit-in -chief 《咖啡评论：中国特辑》 The Cafe Review: The Chinese Issue (XPress, 2021.) Kidd also did English translations of a large number of modern poems from southwest China, especially from the Sichuan and Chongqing regions.
Email: sophiakidd@yanluartsandculture.com
｜Featured Artists｜
Amy Stone
Amy Stone is a Seattle-based mixed media and abstract painter whose work is infused with the rhythms of music and the vibrancy of color. With BA and MA degrees in fine arts and art education, her practice balances creation with the craft of presentation. Stone has exhibited widely in solo and group shows across Seattle and nationally (2017–2019). Her evolving vision has been profiled in Canvas Rebels (2025), inviting collectors to experience art that pulses with movement, harmony, and emotional depth.
Carrie McIntyre
Toronto artist Carrie McIntyre is known for luminous, color-driven abstractions that pulse with layered brushwork. Working primarily in acrylic and mixed media, her bold compositions—such as I Can Do It Too, Chase Your Bliss, and Shape Shifter—capture the beauty of nature, memory, and human connection. Exhibited across regional and national galleries in the U.S., McIntyre’s paintings invite collectors into a world of depth, daring, and radiant expression.
Karen Adams
Karen Adams is an Atlanta-based sculptor who translates myth and the sea into tactile bronze, clay, and mixed-media forms. Her figures—such as Shellmaker and Pelagic Siren—evoke the transformative power of femininity and oceanic force. Exhibited widely across regional galleries, Adams’ sculptures embody both strength and vulnerability, offering collectors archetypal forms charged with timeless resonance.
Katherine Sheers
Formerly an internationally acclaimed lingerie designer, UK-based artist Katherine Sheers studied at Chelsea College of Art before turning to painting. Her layered works in acrylic, oil, pastel, ink, and spray paint explore the vulnerability and power of the female body. Sheers’ art—exhibited from Oxford to Seattle—was shortlisted for The Mother Art Prize (2020). Her paintings, simultaneously raw and refined, offer collectors intimate meditations on embodiment and femininity.
Maria Wickwire
From Washington’s Skagit Valley, sculptor Maria Wickwire creates ceramic and mixed-media figures that embody myth, memory, and the resilience of the human spirit. Her timeless works feel both ancient and contemporary, grounded in the natural rhythms of her surroundings. Widely exhibited across the Pacific Northwest and collected nationally, Wickwire’s sculptures invite collectors into stories of transformation and belonging.
Michel Angela Petersen
British-born artist Michel Angela Petersen discovered ceramics on a remote California island, later earning an MFA in studio and public art. Her monumental thesis project received Congressional recognition, and her travels through Asia deepened her engagement with artifact and history. Her acclaimed Icon series—crafted over a decade—presents ornate, layered female figures exploring mysticism, femininity, and cultural memory. Petersen’s sculptural ceramics combine intuitive creation with scholarly depth, offering collectors works of emotional and symbolic richness.
｜Exhibition Site｜
