![Michelle Ramin hugs a friend near the title wall for her exhibition.](//www.pct.edu/files/news/images/2016/07/DSC_0024_PCTo-150x150.jpg)
![Life imitates art imitating life: A family takes a selfie with "Mona Lisa, IRL," which shows museum visitors taking cellphone photos of the da Vinci masterpiece.](//www.pct.edu/files/news/images/2016/07/DSC_0018_PCTo-150x150.jpg)
![A large crowd turns out for the inaugural exhibit of a new academic year.](//www.pct.edu/files/news/images/2016/07/DSC_0031_PCTo-150x150.jpg)
![The artist talks with gallery patrons.](//www.pct.edu/files/news/images/2016/07/DSC_0035_PCTo-150x150.jpg)
![Visitors replicate cellphone activity in a displayed piece.](//www.pct.edu/files/news/images/2016/07/DSC_0026_PCTo-150x150.jpg)
The Gallery at Penn College hosted a homecoming for a Williamsport native-turned-San Francisco artist Thursday evening. Michelle Ramin and her artwork drew a large crowd of the artist’s family, friends and fans – as well as other gallery-goers – for the opening of “The Sky’s (Not) The Limit,” a collection of oil paintings, watercolors and colored-pencil pieces. During her gallery talk, Ramin led her guests on a literal and artistic tour of her works from early pencil pieces that could take up to six months to create to her more recent oil paintings, a medium she said affords more brisk movement across the canvas. The artist discussed how her creations often reveal hidden metaphors with masks, from literal balaclavas to cellphone screens that give users a barrier from reality and interactions with others. The show, the first exhibit of the 2016-17 academic year, runs through Aug. 14. The gallery’s summer hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Fridays, and 1-4 p.m. Sundays. The gallery is closed Saturdays and Mondays.
Photos by Tia G. La, student photographer