Three art worlds are colliding at the Troy Hayner Cultural Center this winter, and the overall effect is a good thing.

Abbe G. Cheek of Columbus is presenting her contemporary pottery; Micheline Daemen of Troy is showing her realist and abstract paintings, and Ray Wilson of Columbus is presenting his photography.

Abbe G. Cheek

She was more fortunate than most kids while growing up. Instead of Play-Doh, she got to make her first shapes out of clay in her mother’s studio. Today, she favors earth tones for her hand-built plates, bowls and vessels. My favorite work of hers is a small white Penland Plate with splashes of hunter green and taupe.

“Porcelain’s delicate and translucent qualities are further enhanced by the layering of subtle glazes on my thrown forms,” said Cheek, who now has a studio of her own in the basement. “Designs found in nature are my inspiration.”

Cheek has shown her clay pieces extensively in the Columbus area and has been juried into Ohio Craft Museum’s Best of Show every year since 2008.

Micheline Daemen

This viewer’s “best of three” artists would have to be Daemen, not only for the quality of her works but also for her obvious talent across various mediums and styles. She started attending the school of the Arts Decoratifs in Ixelles, Belgium, at 15. She continued her visual arts education at the Academie des Beaux Arts in Belgium, where she studied drawing, watercolor and oil painting.

“You don’t think about things very often, but when I was very young I had all the courses in Belgium, and one day the teacher gave me my drawing back with a notation that she wanted to see me after class,” said Daeman, who moved to the U.S. in 1986. “When my grandmother came to get me, my teacher told her I was very talented and should become an artist.”

Smart teacher. Daemen followed her advice and has been working on her craft. Layers of oils in a beautiful sunset with loads of texture? Check. Hard edges and wonderful composition in an acrylic abstract? No problem. Dreamy floral watercolor? Got that covered, too.

“The subject matter depends upon how I feel that day and what is going through my mind at the time,” said Daemen, who has lived in Troy for the past 10 years.

She is now a member of the Western Ohio Watercolor Society and is also showing her works at The Art Vault Gallery in Troy.

Ray Wilson

His photography career began while on a vacation trip to Alaska. A professional photographer saw his travel shots and “insisted that he get familiar with more details, gain skills and get serious” about his photography. He began his foray into imagery with film, but now uses digital almost exclusively.

“I don’t remove from images those things which were there originally, nor insert things not there,” Wilson said.

Nature usually takes care of the beauty, and Wilson enhances the scene in several different ways. Sometimes he doesn’t have to travel far to unmask that beauty.

“Baby Japanese Maples” is a case in point.

“My wife and I were at breakfast when she noticed how the overcast day made the leaves appear gray,” Wilson said. “She directed me to get out on the deck and take the shot.”

Taking the shot is only the beginning, however. For “Ash Cave,” Wilson took five separate exposures and combined them in a software program to capture a wider range of lights and shadows. The technique is called high dynamic range. Another image, which has sold, is titled “Fall Flies Away.” The subject is milkweed at Caesar Creek State Park.

“To me it doesn’t look like a photograph at all. It looks like a painting,” said Cyndy Shreffler, a Troy resident who has taught ballet at Hayner since 1977.

Wilson has exhibited his photography at the administration offices of Worthington and Grove City, at the High Road and McConnell galleries in Worthington, and the Ohio State Office Building and Motorist Mutual Gallery, both in Columbus.