ShapeShifter Team

Elizabeth Alley, a painter and sketcher from Memphis, explores vulnerable landscapes through on-location sketching to create painting and drawing installations. She received a BFA from University of Memphis, and has shown her work locally and regionally at Crosstown Arts, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, the Nashville International Airport, and Wavelength Gallery in Chattanooga. In 2025, she participated in the Arctic Circle residency, and worked with four artist friends to open ShapeShifter Art School and Gallery.

From July 2025 to March of 2026 Elaine came on board to launch the school and the gallery. She took our ideas from paper to reality by writing systems, designing work-flows and concretizing our communication network between our team, our students, artists and teachers. She has now headed off to nurture her own art by participating in residencies and travel. Please look for her in our classes and be sure to embrace her as a part of our creative community. Elaine, we are forever grateful for your contributions to our becoming and look forward to creating with you in the classroom.

Melissa Dunn’s studio is in her house in Memphis, Tennessee, where she was born and has lived most of her life. She spent her early years immersed in the city’s music scene, splitting her time between playing with bands and making visual art.  Although she still plays guitar and sings, today music is mostly an inward-facing part of her studio life, with an audience of  sketchbooks, drawings, and paintings, which she refers to as her “highly energized objects.”  Her abstract-based work is the landing pad where stream of consciousness and the world meet, telling stories that shapes and color carry, either over a lifetime or through a passing thought.  In addition to her studio practice, Dunn is a teaching-artist to children and adults. She has taught at Flicker Street Studio, studioELL and Carpenter Art Garden. In 2021, she was awarded a public art commission for the Memphis International Airport. She is represented by Sheet Cake Gallery.

Pam McDonnell was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1969 and has resided in Memphis, Tennessee since 1996. Her alma mater is the University of Memphis where she completed her BFA in 2005 and her MFA in 2023. She uses sculpture, painting and hand-built stoneware to tell the story of “the body as a container” for the psychic products we develop. Her work uses religious tropes and language to highlight the sacred nature of the psyche and the process by which trauma is alchemized into joy. She grounds her research in theories developed by depth psychologist Carl Jung and the many post-Jungian analysts who have expanded on his original idea “that the psyche speaks to us through symbol, story and myth.” She has been exhibiting her work in the Memphis area since 2014 and has pieces in the public collections of West Cancer Center, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Church Health Center and Iberia Bank.

Nikii is an artist, curator, studio manager, instructor, and designer who has called Memphis home for almost 30 years. Most recently, she became a licensed professional counselor. She has been creating things with her hands all her life and began working with wire in 2010. Wire sculpture gives her a way to express herself that truly feels authentic. She often incorporates fabric, rust, and embroidery into her sculptures. Over the past few years, her work has reflected the physical, emotional, and mental torture women inflict on their bodies in an attempt to fit the “beauty standard” so pervasive in our culture.

Olive Stevens was born in 2009, in Memphis, Tennessee. With a passion for visual expression, she has studied Art I, Art II, and Interior Design. Especially drawn to creating portraits of women, she finds endless inspiration in capturing the beauty, strength, and emotion of the female form. For Olive, art is an outlet— a universal language that connects people across cultures. She currently works primarily with oil paint and colored pencils and continues to explore and refine her artistic style. Though she’s still considering her college options, Olive hopes to pursue an art-focused path, with particular interest in fashion design and interior design

Jaylyn is a ceramicist and painter from Lexington, TN. She moved to attend the University of Memphis in 2021 and graduated with her BFA in 2025. No matter what form her art takes, she sees every work as an opportunity to experiment, explore, and meditate. Generally her work has focused on preserving her family, upbringing, and childhood memories, though she is now excited to explore how her relationship to nature and her family is evolving. She was featured in several collegiate shows and even a solo show she designed by herself. Jaylyn is also very active in local festivals and markets where she sells her ceramic vessels and sculptures. Moving forward, she wishes to grow her community and learn more about where she sees herself in this universe.