Artist Tiffany Lawson presents solo exhibit at Ohio State Faculty Club

From humble materials such as brown paper bags, plastic onion sacks, pillow stuffing, twigs and newspaper and magazine clippings, Tiffany Lawson creates collage works that tell stories.

One piece pays homage to the south Columbus neighborhood where she grew up. One retells the Exodus story. And another pays tribute to her mother as well as a dozen other strong women.

All are on view in “Contemporary Coloured: Paintings, Mixed Media Art and Assemblages,” Lawson’s solo exhibit of 28 works at Ohio State University’s Faculty  Club. The exhibit is curated by Art Coordinator Lisa Craig Morton, who has been following the young artist’s works for about 10 years.

By day, Lawson works as a judicial assistant in the Franklin County Municipal Court but at night in her East Side home, the self-taught 39-year-old makes art.

When she was a child, Lawson’s mother ran an art program for children at the Ohio Avenue United Methodist Church, bringing in African American artists such as Aminah Robinson, Queen Brooks, Richard Duarte Brown and Gilda Edwards — all of whom, Lawson said, inspired her.

The same sort of color, vibrancy and storytelling qualities that are prominent in the works of those artists can be seen in Lawson’s pieces, especially her large, three-panel collage, “Around the Way, USA.” This lively street scene captures the neighborhood where she grew up with a variety of materials — magazine clippings, doll fabrics, tree twigs, acrylic paint and a base of brown paper bags whose handles can be seen at each end.