Cloverdale Arts Alliance Gallery 'Compass' Opening

The Cloverdale Arts Alliance Gallery, located at 204 North Cloverdale Blvd., offers its latest art exhibition, “Compass,” from May 18 to July 19.

An Artists’ Reception will be held from 5:00 to 7:30pm on Saturday, May 18.

Guest artists for this exhibit are Jimmie Nord, Sculpture and Tamra Sanchez, Pastel Painting. Resident artists are Ralph Broussard,Laura Paine Carr, Jane Gardner, Pamela Heck, Paul Maurer and Hanya Popova Parker.

Pamela Heck is the featured resident artist for “Compass”.

For more information, visit www.cloverdaleartsalliance.org or call (707) 894-4410.

Artist Statements

Pamela Heck, Painting

I have been drawing and painting as long as I can remember. I was fortunate to grow up in a family that nurtured my talent.

At the age of nine, my mother enrolled me in classes at the Wyomissing Institute of Fine Art where, for several years, I happily immersed myself in learning the basics.

I continue to be a serious student of art. Taking a rather eclectic approach, I have studied art at Bowling Green University, the University of Delaware, Santa Rosa Junior College and with various artists in Boston and throughout the Bay Area.

Currently, I am a resident artist at the Cloverdale Arts Alliance Gallery in Cloverdale, CA. I am also a special education teacher, an educational consultant and a published writer of poetry, memoir and short story

Sketches of people and animals decorated the margins of my school notebooks when I was a child, and they continue to spill onto paper and canvas today.

Whether I am painting realistically, or creating mixed media works with a more impressionistic flavor, the focus is almost always on bringing characters to life through the interplay of color, shape and form. My art has been described as having an unusual fusion of playfulness with something rather haunting.

Regardless of style, there is a unifying air of mystery in my work that invites questions and personal interpretation. This “interactive imagining” enriches the viewing experience by creating an interplay between the artist, the painting and the observer.

Like all artists who actually make art, instead of dreaming about it, I have had to face my fears, my doubts, and my uncertainties while forging ahead.

Each piece I create is the best one I can do between two moments…the moment it is conceived and the moment it is completed. Each is my guide to the next piece and the next. All are personal and I think, distinctive. No one else could have produced them.

Amy Smith, Milliner

Tamra Sanchez, Pastel Painting

Born in Palo Alto, California, I have lived in Sonoma County since the early 1980’s.

I began my personal journey in the arts as a young adult taking watercolor classes from a local artist but found myself time and again drawn to paintings in pastel.

The moment I used the pastel medium, I was hooked on their lushness and sensuous tactile quality. I’ve developed my pastel skills over the years mainly through reading, workshops and extensive hands on experience.

Inspired by the beauty in the ordinary moments in time, objects, people, the scenery around me… I strive to capture that spark, that bright spot of color, shadow, or composition that best conveys the excitement and spirit that initially caught my attention. My hope is that through my art, the viewer will see with new eyes and a new appreciation of the world around them.

I am a member of the following Pastel Societies:

Pastel Society of the West Coast

Pastel Society of America

Pastel Society of Colorado

International Association of Pastel Societies

My works are permanently on display at “Corricks” gallery in downtown Santa Rosa. I was a partner at “Local Color Gallery” in Bodega Bay, co-managing the gallery and displaying my art for 10 years until it’s closure in 2014. I teach workshops and private lessons in both pastel and watercolor. “For me, pastels are the perfect medium to speak my artist’s voice!”

Jimmie Nord, Sculpture

Growing up, I would take all of my toys, my father’s wood scraps, and anything else I could find and start taping them together. I called the objects that I made, “my inventions”.

I would spend hours constructing my inventions, allowing my imagination to fuel the function of my creation. Each invention would feed into the next idea: every object taking on its own life inside of my mind creating a continuous narrative.

This process is still true to the way I work today. The processes, tools, and materials that I learned over the course of my life have helped transform my inventions into the art I now create.

The relationship between process and material in my sculptures is a look into a handcrafted history that helps form my ideas. My process becomes the story of each piece, and the materials are the words.

Every wooden dowel, piece of wood, and steel rod is cut and attached one at a time like words pieced together to form a sentence. I spend time with each part measuring, sanding, and grinding them individually.

I get to know each part one-on-one and form a relationship with every piece that makes up the sculpture. This visual way of communicating offers a glimpse into my imagination.

For more information, visit www.cloverdaleartsalliance.org or call (707) 894-4410.