Join the artists for a closing reception today from 2-4pm!
Ella Rose Cleaveland Artist Statement
When I was a small child, I’d spend many hours each day exploring the limits of my imagination. I drew monsters to hide from, built fortresses to defend, fashioned animal families to join me and my brother in play. 
Because there were no limits to my imagination, there were no limits to what I saw as as useful supplies: noodles, laundry, shoes, boxes- everything could be something else if it contributed to my playtime world.
As I grew, I began to use artistic media, such as watercolors, colored pencils, pastels and textiles as a way of expressing my ideas. My brother and I spent many afternoons playing outside, and when we were indoors, we read animal encyclopedias to learn more about what we loved. We also read about the mythologies of other cultures, which fascinated us, and made room for themselves in my mind. My art brings together these two interests: my scientific understanding of animals, how they’re built and what animates them, and the fantastical creatures that stalked my mind and my playtime when I was a child not so long ago.
Mercer Jackson Artist Statement
I guess I have always been interested in art. I remember when a classmate and I painted a mural on the back wall of our fourth grade classroom. And, in high school, I was intrigued by a Norman Rockwell painting on the Saturday Evening Post which featured a sad black Cocker Spaniel. I bought three tiny tubes of oil paint, black, red and white, and one brush, and painted the dog on a piece of redwood left over from some remodeling.
But I was distracted by raising five children, moving frequently, and then; going back to school to get my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees when the youngest was in first grade.
I finally discovered the art world when I attended an art class at Fort Mason in San Francisco. I still remember the teacher, Irene Halpern, who was an inspiration. I eventually moved to Petaluma, and had another wonderful teacher, Wanda Robin, who taught classes at the Petaluma Senior Center.
I started doing animal portraits (after years of abstracts and then still lives) when a neighbor asked me to paint a picture of their cat, Felix. That was the start of my love of animal portraits. I did many paintings of my friends’ dogs and cats. I always said that my pleasure in the doing of the painting and their pleasure in receiving it was all the reward I wanted.
So I have continued through the last years, with my love of painting animals. Sometimes they were ‘real’ animals who belonged to friends. Other times, I went to the computer to find images of animals that appealed to me. I continue to paint animals, although my sight is failing, because it is such an engrossing and satisfying use of my time.
