As a young artist, Mary Martin was looking for ways to exhibit her work.

She found it with Women of Vision, a Pittsburgh non-profit group formed to advance the art of African-American women.

"When I first came, Mary was the gofer of the group," said Elizabeth Asche Douglas. "Now, she's the president."

Ms. Douglas, of Rochester, called the group of 27 members, which opens a show Friday at the Valley Arts Guild, Sharon, a "sisterly" organization.

"The idea is to encourage one another," she said.

"We've seen people grow and improve so much," said Dee Currin of Pittsburgh, a member since 1982. "We say when one makes it, we all make it."

Based at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the group includes full-time artists, and artists who make art only in their spare time.

For some of the members, visual art is not even their sole artistic endeavor: Ms. Douglas is a singer and pianist, and Vanessa German is an actress.

The kinds of visual art the members make is equally diverse, from paintings and drawings to fiber works and ceramic sculptures.

For the VAG show, "Sepia -- She, who is Brown," Ms. Martin included two collages, "Imani Series #1," which focuses on Umoja (unity), the first day of the African-American holiday Kwanzaa, and "Ancestral Connections."

"I like the process of found images, working from magazine images and reassembling them, almost like quilting," said Ms. Martin, of Sharon. "I studied architecture in school so there's constant reference to architecture in my works."

Noting that she was married on the first day of Kwanzaa and that the images reflect herself or her husband, she added, "There's always a personal story behind my work."

Ms. Douglas's late husband, William R. Douglas, figures in "Self Spectrum," a computer manipulated print.

Douglas took the original photograph of his wife, and she changed the color scheme in a series of versions of the image.

"I played around with it ala Andy Warhol," she said. "It's funny how, just by changing the color, the character of the image seems to change."

Ms. Douglas also contributed the sepia ink drawing "Clasped Hands," and "Reflections on Soul Sister," a series

of picture frames, stacked at odd angles. Each frame holds a transparent, digitized image of a painting she did some years ago.

"You see through the film and not just at it," she said.

Ms. Currin hopes black women will see through their fascination with white culture in "So You Want to be a Blonde." The painting shows a black woman with long blond hair, and angel wings strapped to her.

"She'll never be a blonde," Ms. Currin said. "You see the wings with the harness? Those aren't real wings."

Other works by Ms. Currin are the triple portrait "Speak No Evil," which she said is about the importance of friendship, and "I Am," a painting of a monolithic woman and a baby in her womb.

Inspired by a dream, "I Am" has appealed to many women, who have told Ms. Currin they relate to the image.

"It's a strong woman," she said.

Other artists exhibiting are Jo Anne Bates, Joyce Baucum, Tina William Brewer, Patrice Collins, Sandra German, Marica Jackson, La Verne Kemp, Ruth Richardson, TENANCHE and Meredith Watson Young.

"The artists that are showing here are probably some of the strongest in the group," Ms. Douglas said.

jpinchot@sharon-herald.com