BRIDGTON — Victoria Mares is the guest artist at Gallery 302, 112 Main St., through Nov. 11. 

She will share her fiber art and watercolors with the public, and give a behind-the-scenes look at her felting process at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21. This will be followed by an artist reception from 5 to 7 p.m.

In addition to being an artist, Mares is a writer, playwright and social activist. She studied fine art at Long Island University in New York, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, and the former Brooklyn Museum. She has also studied the craft of wet felting, creating fine art and wearable art.

Mares is a graduate of Michigan State University and received a certificate in electronic journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She has worked for New York City media, her own independent productions, and in theater. From 2001-06, she wrote a weekly column for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram on a broad variety of current topics.

In addition to writing two historical fiction plays, Mare’s work with the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine has given her the opportunity to write and produce several video presentations about prominent Maine figures.

Mares’ work in the area of social justice includes working with the Portland Police Department to train police officers in cross-cultural and diversity issues, and co-founding the Institute for Practical Democracy.

In her busy life, Mares never loses sight of her need to create art.

“You can see my style in watercolor and mixed media work transferred to my work creating wet-felted, three-dimensional fine art and fine crafts,” she said. “I have spent much of my life as a writer, journalist and changemaker working with social fairness and empowerment kinds of endeavors. However, the news of our world, wherever we live, is filled with issues, crises and intentional badwill. It can overwhelm our ability to see the beauty that remains around us. The light, color, a tiny speck of life can inspire the artwork or writing that I commit to each day. And, I do work at art every day. I hope that I can transmit some of the miraculous beauty that insists on continuing, whatever we human beings do in this world. Texture, light, color, content, warmth, coolness, are in what my hands make.”