Somewhere between the layers of Bainbridge Island artist Patty Rogers’ mixed media collage work, there is a subconscious message of humility.

Expounded by nature and the many places which she has seen, Rogers’ work could be described as a beautifully fragile. Not fragile in a materialistic sense — her pieces are mounted, not framed, on thick wood panels provided by island woodworker William Walker — but more so delicate in subject matter.

She highlights bird life, flora, fauna and even a few fish with acrylic paints while using rare and foreign paper collage as background. Utilizing that contrast, she creates lively works year round, but she noted, this past winter’s drabness was unusually difficult to paint through.

“Just about the minute you can’t take it anymore and you think, ‘Why am I living in this gray green,’ everything explodes in color,” Rogers said, describing the Northwest’s grand entrance of spring.

Fittingly during the month of May, Rogers’ artistry — titled “Chance Traveler” — will be front and center at the Roby King Art Gallery — 176 Winslow Way E on Bainbridge Island.

“I try to connect myself in the process of making and the viewer in the process of seeing what is in reach, within us and in nature around us,” Rogers said.

One of the face pieces of her show, “Each in the Other’s Heart” exemplifies that attempt within the piece itself; It shows a small bird with a tiny blossom in its chest perched in front of a lush replica of that same flower with a nest cradled within its petals.

Viewers may derive numerous meanings from that symbolism, but Rogers said she painted it when she saw a grove of wetlands being destroyed while birds watched, perched in saddened confusion.

“I don’t know if birds have feelings like that … but I imagine they do,” she said. “Sometimes the picture doesn’t matter so much as does the connection (with the viewer). The fact that they connect to it, that’s what we call art.”

Rogers said she feels people are sometimes disconnected from their best selves, wrapped up in a rapidly changing world.

She’s gathered that assumption from abroad, living in Hawaii, Texas, California and Washington throughout her life. She’s also traveled to different parts of the world, having previously sailed the French Caribbean and also a regular visitor to Southeast Asia.

She invokes an Asian influence in many pieces utilizing itajine — folded and colored Japanese paper — in her collages. She’s also recently delved into the inclusion of calligraphy.

Another one of the face pieces, and also the namesake of the show, “Chance Traveler” brings in a little of more Asian flavor, featuring a few Koi fish swimming amongst plumaria flowers.

Yet another piece, “Slice” is an ode to Eastern Washington and her father — a former apple picker — utilizing eight dried apple slices amongst the background collage.

Those pieces and much more of Rogers’ repertoire will be on display at the Roby King through May 26.