By MOLLY DAVIDSON / Staff Writer

HARPERSVILLE—Black Sheep Antiques does not only carry treasures from the past, the shop also features contemporary local artists. Each quarter the Harpersville shop hosts a reception allowing guests to browse the art and meet the artist.

On Friday, Oct. 2, Black Sheep Antiques hosted Birmingham-based artist Darrell Ezekiel. Ezekiel brought an eclectic selection of work, from his “scraps of memory” quilt pieces to his mixed-media “odd fellows.”

“I dabble in a little of this and that,” Ezekiel said of his broad breadth of work. “I have a crazy amount of stuff I need to put to new use.”

Ezekiel’s pieces utilize antique and found objects to create new works. His scraps of memory pieces feature damaged quilts placed behind a white cutout, creating a splash of color behind a white foreground.

“It started from a collection of quilts that got handed to me from my mother’s family,” Ezekiel said of the scraps of memory. “They were badly damaged and beyond repair. No one wanted them, but I could still see the beauty in them.”

Ezekiel’s odd fellows reflect a similar blending of materials. Each character is constructed of a painted wood base and ornamented with found objects, from old toy wheels to measuring spoons.

“They’re a cross between my paintings and my love of mixed media and junking,” Ezekiel said.

Black Sheep Antiques also featured a display of Ezekiel’s “instant ancestors,” which he described as a “different spin on a clothespin doll.” Each “instant ancestor” is constructed with a large clothes pin body, an antique postage-size tintype face and affixed with arms recovered from an abandoned doll factory in Germany.

“(Ezekiel creates) really whimsical pieces,” Black Sheep Antiques owner Barbara Adkins said.

Although featured as an artist on Oct. 2, Ezekiel is no stranger to Black Sheep Antiques as a customer.

“I veered off the road when traveling to Birmingham (from Sylacauga),” Ezekiel said. “I loved what they had done. It’s simple, country, primitive.”

Black Sheep Antiques opened in May 2014 and is located in a former feed and seed shop at 39509 Alabama 25.

“The building is part of the fabric of early Harpersville,” Adkins said. “I can imagine my grandparents coming here for feed.”

The shop is open Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.