Portland artist Mary Josephson knows her stuff. She has oil paint at her beck and call, making it perform her every whim. She is also a master of the more crafty media of embroidery and mosaic. More, Josephson is possessed of a generous muse that has given her the artistic vision - the inspiration - to give real substance to the materials that she manipulates.

A show of Josephson’s work entitled “Blue Moon” is currently on display at Tacoma’s Traver Gallery. The show consists of more than 20 works of art, including oil paintings on wood, hand embroidery on felt and mosaics in glass tile. Almost all, no matter the medium employed, are portraits of people done in a style that is almost a blend of folk art and caricature. There is a faux naïvete to these portraits reminiscent of the work of such 1980s era Northwest artists as Fay Jones, Linda Barry and Gregory Grenon.

Josephson’s “sitters” (the portraits are often presented in pairs) are dressed in patterned shirts and dresses and they often wear hats that fascinate. More often than not there are plants and animals crammed in between the figure and the boundary of the work. Brilliant and sumptuous color is employed by Josephson no matter which medium she employs.

Josephson’s oil on wood paintings are lustrous and thick. The oil paint on the hard surface, applied with a loose brush, has a lovely, hard sheen. Josephson’s figures have vivid, livid-red lips and large, dark eyes that are reminiscent of Greek Orthodox icons. Like icons the figures are imbued with a vital presence as they gaze out at their viewers.

In “Wonders Return” a female figure wears a dark purple dress and a wide headdress of purple, leafy material. A candy-bright red bird is perched on the handle of a cane that the woman is evidently holding. Bumblebees bump and cavort on the blue and yellow flowers that surround the figure. The work speaks of the return of the wonders of springtime or, more broadly, of the refreshment that comes upon us when life and beauty happily intrude upon us.

Josephson’s embroideries are jewel-like works of art generally smaller than her paintings. Hand stitched on pieces of felt, the brilliant threads form ropes of color that twist like plowed fields on a convoluted hillside. The bands of color form faces with shadow and highlight. Humorously, Josephson uses loose strings of thread to form the eyelashes of her figures. Under the weight of her stitchery the underlining felt buckles and crumples, giving them an additional three-dimensionality. The works seem like precious fragments of some immense, psychedelic tapestry.

In “White Dragonflies, Pink Houses” the wonderfully awkward face of the figure is surrounded by dragonflies, tree forms and small house shapes that tilt this way and that and are sometimes upside down. One large dragonfly rests on the female figure’s forehead.

The mosaic works present in the show are less complex than the paintings or the embroideries. More often than not, the ground around the figure is monochromatic. Still, the faces shown are wonderfully modeled with shadow and highlight. In “Blue Moon Rising” the glass mosaic portrait is contained with a ceramic frame. Many of Josephson’s frames for the mosaic pieces appear to be custom made.

Waxing poetic, Josephson asserts that each of the works in this show is “as rare and singular as a blue moon” (hence the title of the show). A viewing of her show is sure to both delight and inspire. “Blue Moon” runs through April 4 at Traver Gallery, located next to the Museum of Glass. For further information visit www.travergallery.com or call (253) 383-3685.