Featuring moody and compelling representations of hand-built wood and rope bridges, her collection of paintings is on display at the Triton Museum of Art through Jan. 2.

"I love shape and form, figuration not abstraction," von Felten says. "Though the paintings are not totally realistic, they show light, shadows, reflections, layers of meaning and rhythms of shape that appeal to most people."

The subject matter was inspired by a series of footbridges that cross a stream in a nature preserve called El Charco del Ingenio in a canyon near San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Webster's dictionary defines bridges as structures that span obstacles, but von Felten finds a much deeper meaning in them.

"Bridges are a metaphor for life," von Felten says. "They can connect and disconnect people. Sometimes they represent a clear path; other times, disintegrating passages."

In 1992, von Felten, who worked as a graphic designer for various Bay Area­based companies, and her husband decided to take the money they had saved for a down payment on a house and use it to live in Mexico for 18 months while von Felten explored her art.

"My husband really pushed for me to take this time," von Felten says. "I was painting on the side and not really sure of what I wanted to do with my art. I was at a point where I needed to explore what was in me or forget about it. My intention was to purge myself of the dream of becoming an artist, but within six weeks of being in Mexico, I had already achieved my goals and was selling work."

While in San Miguel de Allende, von Felten visited El Charco del Ingenio several times and made sketches and full-size pastel drawings of the bridges. Once back in her studio in San Jose, she supplemented her source material with photos of bridges, dams, vegetation and various structures in the reserve. She developed drawings, prints, paintings and mixed-media works with the themes that included separation, barriers, relationships and changes.

"Living in Mexico gave me an extended time to think. I discovered myself as an artist down there, so when I came back I could juggle work and art," she says.

Most of von Felten's pieces are oversized, with the largest being a roughly 7 foot by 7 foot oil on canvas depicting a portion of a precarious rope bridge.

In addition to oil on canvas, "Suspensions" features several monotypes, which involve printing one-of-a-kind images onto large sheets of paper from a Plexiglas plate painted with ink. Von Felten says working with large pieces of paper creates a sense of fragility, which is conducive to the feel of the show. In addition, many of the pieces are being shown without frames or glass.

"I wanted to keep the imagery raw and close to the viewer," von Felten says.

Von Felten's educational background includes a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Santa Clara University and graduate coursework in painting and drawing from Instituto Allende (affiliated with University of Guanajuato) in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

"My teachers taught me to trust myself and my hand and to know that sometimes the first gesture is the best," she says. "It is possible to overwork a piece, and when you add something, you lose something. Still, the Rev. Gerald Sullivan from Santa Clara University used to tell me: 'Don't be afraid to destroy a piece.'"

Although she is a veteran exhibitor at art galleries around the Bay Area, "Suspensions" is von Felten's first museum show.

Triton Museum of Art is located at 1505 Warburton Ave., Santa Clara. For more information, call 408. 247.3754.