Sophia Grace Gallery is thrilled to unveil She’s So Collectible: Curating the Richard Machen Collection—the first public exhibition of this extraordinary private collection, originally valued at half a million dollars. Assembled by Bellingham-based collector Richard Machen, founder of the Three Raven Gallery, this collection is a rare and unique phenomenon in the Pacific Northwest: a private collection composed of 98% living women artists, curated with vision and boldness that challenges convention.

Curated by Dr. Sophia Kidd, the exhibition presents paintings by Katherine Sheers, Amy Stone, and Carrie McIntyre, alongside ceramic sculpture by Maria Wickwire, Michel Angela Petersen, and Karen Adams. Each artwork embodies an urgent vitality, together forming a collection that signals a regime change in the canon: one that foregrounds women’s voices, materials, and visions for the future. 

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.” 

Karen Adams

Pelagic Siren

Michel Angela Petersen

Tattva Mimamsa: Pondering Dualism

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.

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.

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.