WAVERLY - An open call for models ages "2 to 200" with "a striking feature or eccentric character" is posted on the Web site of New York photographer Sarah Small.

The artist also lobbies for "an amazing bird or spider, monkey or shark, jaguar or deer" to spice up her work.

Reading those online shout-outs is enough to intrigue most art lovers. But the elements are made all the more powerful in Small's work as she combines the mundane and the magnificent in her engrossing photos.

"Usually how a picture comes to be is that I'll find two different subjects that are very distant from each other and every separate," said the artist. "I just decide that I want to put them in the same space and see what happens."

Cedar Valley residents can check out the results of those quirky unions starting Monday at Wartburg College's Waldemar A. Schmidt Art Gallery in Wartburg. We guarantee it's the only photo show in town to highlight a nude ballet dancer prancing through the living room of an elderly woman. Thirty-two large-scale reproductions of Small's work will be on display through March 1. An opening reception is planned Wednesday, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Motion and energy characterize Small's work, said Matthew Wilson-Pickering, the gallery's director.

"There is so much conceptual photography going on now where people are using sound and images that someone else took and manipulating them, but that's not Sarah," he said. "Her work is refreshing for that reason. People are very important in her work, she's always looking for connections."

Small enjoys photographing mammals and children - often in the same setting - "because they have such raw emotions." But she's always on the lookout for a fresh face or prop to add to her collection.

"I kind of cast while I am walking around the city," said Small, who has been working as a professional photographer since 2001. "I find subjects while I am on the subway, or while I'm at a party."

Some of the photos to be shown at Wartburg include joyful tumblers, a wild-haired child dancing while an elderly man dozes in his armchair, and a woman and a goat resting in the grass.

Wilson-Pickering met Small while he was living in New York in the early 2000s. He said he's excited to share her unique style with the Cedar Valley.

"The thing about her work that is so great is that she doesn't sit around and wait for things to happen," Wilson-Pickering said. "I think it will be great for our students to see this other way of working, and realize that a photograph isn't just something out there waiting for you to take it. A photograph is something you can create and orchestrate."

Contact Mary Stegmeir at (319) 291-1482 or mary.stegmeir@wcfcourier.com.

{M3Go & Do

What: {M3Photographs of Sarah Small

{M3When:{M3 Monday through March 1, with an opening reception 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday

{M3Where:{M3 Waldemar A. Schmidt Art Gallery, Wartburg College

{M3For more information: {M3www.wartburg.edu/art/gallery.html