Carmel Buckley’s slice of the universe is filled with sheer unlimited creativity, topped, like the traditional cherry on a sundae, with surprises, as if the universe were not enough. With a twist of wire, a dollop of clay, and a few well-used found objects, her sculptures blossom with curious freshness and drawings and prints become hypnotic in their profound simplicity.

Clay Street press currently carries Buckley’s wondrous originality in its simple gallery with quiet dignity. All of the work is easily portable in size, utilizing space as a unique medium, one which the artist has obviously mastered in chine collet etchings. Parallel thinly etched lines make the space they encompass through their tight-packed imagery more than a drawing. Think of the exquisite lines in centuries of engraved plates, now moving into abstraction, manipulated by the spaces they occupy, and the spaces they do not, into far more precious realms of art than their previous practical purposes could encompass.

Titles are few. Most of the work shown is simply numbered, a discernment which allows the pieces to speak their magic in their own voices. Just when some portion of these whimsical meanderings seems to become a concrete image, it wanders off again into unrecognizable curls and patterns. #20 incorporates tiny feet in pointy-toed slippers which almost lead the viewer to crow, “Eureka!”, only to turn back into a maze of almost something-ness. Swirls of flowers, grasses and spaces filled with closely drawn circles or lines manage to charm, even as they confuse.

Perhaps one of the most amazing coups in this space and counter-space game are 3 sets of drawings, two to a set, one a drawing and its partner of the same image sewn into the paper. In #1 a perfect line of carefully drawn brown ink dashes bisects the page vertically, repeated in the other part of the set in neatly sewn running stitches, each the same size as the drawn dashes, allowing the tail of thread to float off the end of the page. #2 forms chain stitches neatly into a square, while next to it is a drawn replica. And the final set of this trio forms a circle similar to the chambered nautilus design using the same two media. All are placed in the center of a page, allowing the space around them to dwarf the images , surrounding them with silence.