Today, tonight signify Friday, Feb. 13.
PORT ANGELES — An art gallery owner will celebrate the first anniversary of her gallery’s opening and her own 70th birthday tonight with a public party at The Landing mall.
All 61 of the artists of Heatherton Gallery will be at the free event to celebrate Sky Heatherton’s birthday, the gallery and to discuss their artwork from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The anniversary-birthday party will include a free refreshment buffet and live smooth jazz music.
The gallery has a variety of work that cannot be easily classified according to any one style, such as modern art or folk art galleries.
“It’s what is called an ‘eclectic’ art gallery. It has a little bit of everything,” Heatherton said.
Items in the shop range from small gift items to major, high-quality works of art, she said.
A breast cancer survivor, Heatherton officially entered the art world when she hosted the “Embracing Life Through Art” in the gallery space each October from 2011-13.
The show featured art created by artists with cancer, she said.
She worked as a registered nurse for 35 years, but doctors told her to find a less stressful field of work as part of the treatment for cancer when she was diagnosed four years ago.
“They told me to do what I love,” Heatherton said.
In 2014, the main gallery in The Landing mall, which had been operated by a manager under mall ownership, was offered as a private gallery.
Heatherton put in a bid, was selected as the new tenant and took over in February 2014.
For the past year, she has been “surrounded by beauty and color and wonderful people,” she said.
Visitors from around the world have signed the gallery’s guestbook, and both new and veteran artists have displayed their work on the walls and shelves.
“It makes my heart happy,” Heatherton said.
Art is therapeutic, and not just for herself, she said.
Residents from a local memory care facility recently visited the gallery, she said, and those who had backgrounds in art “lit up.”
Those former artists began showing their companions the art and talked of the techniques and merits of the art they were seeing, Heatherton said.
She said watching them open up because of the art was a joy.
Heatherton also has an interest in art education.
Students from local schools visit the gallery, and she works with them, both to critique their own work and to critique the work of those whose art is on display.
Heatherton said she loves to work with new artists, either to recognize and add their work to her gallery or to give them constructive criticism to allow them to improve their art for future consideration.
Art instruction in the schools has been neglected, she said.
She reviewed children’s artwork from Greywolf Elementary School in Sequim and was both pleased and dismayed.
“Their work is surprising, but the teachers are not given the supplies they need,” she said.
Like music, she said, art has benefits for mathematical learning, as students learn perspective and balance.
Art needs to be returned to the schools, she said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
