Local artist Michaelene “Mikey” Walsh takes an inventive approach to a timeless art form

In her latest public work, artist Michaelene “Mikey” Walsh found an inventive way to depict the periodic table of elements.

Made for the LSU Chemistry and Materials Building, Walsh’s installation interprets several element symbols as handmade ceramic blocks. Spectators spot a chunky “Au” for gold, “Ag” for silver, “Co” for cobalt and “Ni” for nickel. But what’s really interesting are the glazes that give each work its own color and sheen: Walsh has developed recipes that use each corresponding element.

Actual nickel was used for the Ni sculpture’s moss green color. Cobalt—using real cobalt—is bright blue. And gold and silver sport the unsurprising shiny leafing of their elements. The collection is a quiet confluence of art and science.

“There’s a lot of chemistry in my work,” says Walsh, 56, an associate professor of ceramics at LSU’s College of Art and Design. “This was a good crossover between the two areas.”

Unveiled in 2024, the element wall is one of several of Walsh’s public works in Baton Rouge. She has created cheerful ceramic installations for Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital that feature birds perched atop ice cream cones glazed in soft, inviting colors.

At the Cary Saurage Community Arts Center, she made a three-dimensional donor wall with the names of major contributors and small clay pots honoring indigenous tribes. To make the pots, she dug clay from the banks of the Mississippi River, another example of her work’s layered complexity.

At LWCC, she was commissioned to make 64 ceramic pieces that symbolize Louisiana workers and legacy industries. Shrimping and fisheries are represented by a white boot, while retail is shown through a coat hanger.

The installations have represented a new way of approaching her craft, says Walsh, who began focusing on commissioned pieces in 2019.

“They’ve fed a craving for a different direction,” she says. “It’s interesting, and it feels a little bit like service because it’s bringing my work to a client.”

Walsh also shows in local and national galleries. Her most recent exhibit, at Baton Rouge Gallery in August, featured a series of hollow figures made from red clay. Like many of her installations, it was composed of several small pieces arranged in a collection, forming a kind of conversation across the visual space, she says. It also showed the influence of ceramics from worldwide cultures. The timeless art form has served people for millennia, according to Walsh.

“Really old things inspire me,” she says. “A lot of my inspiration is looking at that kind of work.”

This article was originally published in the December 2025 issue of 225 Magazine.