Castle Rock – In the world of art, this is off the beaten path – an outlet mall, where teens jabber into cellphones and mothers push strollers stacked with bags fit for a mule.
But in The Outlets at Castle Rock, the town’s artist colony is taking root.
Since December, about 40 south metro artists have shown their work in Art Explorers Gallery, a space that most recently was a kitchenware store. There is a waiting list of more than three dozen artists who, by the cooperative code, live north of Colorado Springs and south of Denver.
“Artists there already have enough galleries,” said Gail Sechrist, the former North Carolina elementary school teacher who founded the store and collects its rent from the artists.
The first big shows at the gallery are coming in the next few weeks:
The Art of the Miniature Painting is Friday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Local artists will show and sell miniature versions of their work.
A Year in the Life of a Camera runs throughout July. The show features 52 Colorado photographers and one camera; they each took it a week and provided the 52 black-and-white prints that visually tell the story about the passage of a year.
It’s been an amazing year for Gail and Josh Sechrist, who officially opened Art Explorers in September, after moving to Colorado to be close to their grandchildren.
Their store is aimed at children and parents who want to make crafts such as paper fish and colored handprints for scrapbooks and refrigerator doors.
The Sechrists recruited local artists to teach classes. As part of the deal, artists could sell their work in the store.
Word got out, and the Sechrists soon had more artists than they could accommodate.
The space next door was vacant since the Farberware store moved out, so the Sechrists leased it too, on the condition the artists take turns minding the gallery. It has an open studio in the back, where painters, potters, sculptors and carvers can work as shoppers watch.
In addition to attracting attention, it makes the work more personal, Josh Sechrist said. “People feel like they know the art if they know the artists.”
The artists also are peddling the passion for art, said Judi Owens, a painter from Centennial. She invites kids to add a few strokes to her canvas, based on how the work makes them feel.
“Art is not just something to hang on the wall and never touch,” she said. “Children need to know that it’s approachable, that it’s fun, that it’s OK to get your hands dirty.”
The gallery has pulled landscape painter Marcia Blakeman of Castle Rock into the artists’ community. She gave up a career as a graphic artist for an ad firm 13 years ago when her son was born. Her husband works for Comcast, so she hasn’t taken the stereotypical starving-artist route. She sees the mall cooperative as an offbeat way to get back into her painting.
“My stuff is getting a lot more attention,” she said. “But when you think of a fine art gallery, you don’t ever really think of a mall.”
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-820-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
