Radiating with energy, each sculpture is a collection of a hundred to thousands of small, hand-rolled, hand-painted clay rods placed in a way to naturally interlock with nothing but their own shape to bind them.

Gathering inspiration from the grasses of the saltwater marsh surrounding her Marin home, Finneran says the shapes evolved from a desire to make abstract sculpture that maintained a personal essence.

"The sculptures are connected to nature in the way that each piece is transformable," she says. "The marsh is such an amazing and wonderful place. But I don't want to copy nature, so I use bright color. I love color." Taking her love of color to elemental shapes, Finneran has discovered a way to translate several other loves as well—her appreciation of multiples, of selected chaos, and of fun.

Showcasing one of her most dense and varied collections, Finneran is displaying her work in "Arc in Time," at the Montalvo Gallery from Sept. 7 to Nov. 2. The collection—spanning from a cherry-red sea-urchin shape to a multihued orange cone—features sculptures of varying size that represent six full days of work by Finneran and a team of friends. "The shapes are quite minimal, mostly rings, cones, mounds, and lines," she says. "I'm still discovering shapes. I get so busy making the stuff I need to remember how I want to use it."

By creating a basic shape, however, Finneran has more opportunity to express herself with color. "The pieces are about color, form, and the relationship of color to form. There is no narrative," she says. "One thing I love about using unnatural color is that people always think the sculptures are made out of rubber—they're amazed to realize it is hard."

To make the pieces—curves, as she calls them—Finneran pinches off a ball of clay, rolls it, places it on a board, then tugs the edges to make the clay curve slightly. After drying on the board, each piece goes through several rounds of glazing, firing, and coloring with acrylic paint.

"The process is really nuts," she says. "But the pieces build up slowly. Rolling clay is meditative, it's not boring. And there is so much in the whole process, that I can spend a short time with each part and rotate."

The process of creating curves was unintentional, proven by rounds of making paper-thin shapes that broke within a second to straight rods that rolled uncontrollably around her studio. "Then one day I intuitively pulled the ends down on the piece for a curve," she says. "I'm so interested in that particular shape because the curve is such a strong form, like bird nests. It looks solid, but there is a lot of space in it."

A testament to the form itself, Finneran's work goes untitled, yet each gets a mention of how many curves were used to create the piece.

"One of the greatest art forms to come out of California is clay, and so I'm always looking for new ceramists that do something different. I was very curious about her work," says Ruth Braunstein of the Braunstein Quay Gallery in San Francisco. After viewing Finneran's work in 1997, Braunstein commissioned a show for her and has since been displaying her work. "The response has been so positive," she says. "Her use of color is quite unique. And it is so labor intensive, but she is good-natured about it. She doesn't worry at all."

Although Finneran has not been creating these specific sculptures for very long, she is no stranger to the creative arts. For 30 years she and her husband worked in avant-garde theater with the Magic Theatre company. "I think that is why I feel comfortable with the performative aspect of putting the pieces together. The idea of coming in with a whole bunch of stuff, setting it up, and then leaving. It's much like touring with a theater company," she says. "I can't imagine doing anything else. I like all that variety."

Plans for the "Arc in Time" exhibit began over a year ago, when Montalvo visual arts director Michele Rowe-Shields contacted Finneran to show her work.

"I had been eyeing her work for a long time," Rowe-Shields says. "There is a wonderful inventiveness about the forms and color. What is so new about her work is that she can take inspiration from nature and make it look so spontaneous, like it's spilling or evolving while contrasting with strong geometry. That gives it a magical quality—this wonderful pulsing sense of life, and a wonderful playfulness."

The Montalvo Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.villamontalvo.org.