Pinwheel Gallery

Roll on through to see "Road Kill" this week!

Thursday and Friday, regular hours 2pm to 6pm, but Saturday we will be open late celebrating Old Brooklyn Streetfest!!!!

Next Saturday from 2pm to 8 pm Old Brooklyn will be holding its annual Streetfest! Come see what an amazing neighborhood Pinwheel is happy to be a part of, and see how Art Builds Community in Old Brooklyn!!
brooklyn

Huge thanks to everyone who came out tonight to celebrate the Opening of "Road Kill"! Thank you ASG for letting the Gallery share your work! Thank you patrons and collectors and friends who support local art and local artists!❤️

We had a great time and we also had cookies.

Road Kill runs through November 6th, so please come by if you didn't get a chance tonight!

Pinwheel Gallery is proud to present Christine Anastasia Mason, one of the fantastic artists in “Road Kill” (Opening 10/2/2026)!!

Christine Anastasia Mason has been creating art for a lifetime. All of her work originates from thoughtfully processed graphite compositions, later translated into larger works of oil, acrylic, or mixed media on hard surfaces like wood panel, glass, and acrylic window glazing. She studied painting at The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and at Kent State University, and since then has generated work independently in her studio in Cleveland. In earlier years she was driven to make art for the joy of making it but eventually confronted herself with questions about materialism and whether the world needed artists to generate more stuff. She has come full circle to seeing the greater purpose in creating particular kinds of imagery and is renewed by knowledge of the responsibility that artists carry for the subjects they bring into the world.

Christine says:
When I started with this project, I set out to survey the highway of subjects out there and encountered this smudge on the road. There was a long skinny curl that tapered suspiciously into a point. A hairy flutter every time a car roared by. Four small claws hiding in the black asphalt; Claws made for digging; Perfect, curved claws. Rooted in outstretched pads of a grub-hugging hand. From that arose something that wanted to be said.

This theme of roadkill is timeless, and the experience is nothing new. We have all hit this moment over and over in countless lifetimes. Here only the color schemes are different. Everything else is the same. Whether one is the subject or the object of the fatal impact, or a witness happening upon the scene, these paintings address the intensity of dark values swallowing up the light, the stark rawness of pavement painted straight out of acrylic tubes, with marks that dry quickly before there's any chance of reversing what just happened. This process hurtled me through reflections on ignorance, shame, and remorse, humbled by ordinary things that glow beyond my mistakes. These three panels are the witness.

Pinwheel Gallery is proud to present Kelly Pontoni, one of the fantastic artists in “Road Kill” (Opening 10/2/2026)!!

Kelly Pontoni is a multidisciplinary artist based in Cleveland, known for her poignant explorations of personal and communal narratives through printmaking, mosaics, painting, and book arts. Her work reflects a deep engagement with history, illustrating how personal experiences are interwoven with broader social and political contexts. Pontoni’s compositions often evoke a sense of nostalgia, inviting viewers to consider the traces of history that shape their contemporary lives. By focusing on the connections within communities, she highlights the intricate relationships that bind individuals to their environments and to each other. Her art serves as a dialogue between the past and present, provoking thought around identity, memory, and the impact of political structures on personal experience. Through her diverse mediums, Pontoni not only creates visually compelling pieces but also fosters a deeper understanding of the shared human experience.

Kelly says:
I have been with this group of women artists for the last several years. When we decided to have a show, our theme created many conversations. Roadkill, such a harsh word, we hoped it would get viewers’ attention, maybe spark an interest in folks who don’t attend art exhibits. And maybe it is a statement on how we all feel about the world around us. As diverse as the name is, so is this small group of women creators.
We Can Do Hard, was created in my dear mentor’s studio in PA. It’s been 5 years since her death. When I create in her studio, I produce very different outcomes than I do in my own studio. This was created at the start of a very rough road in my life: going through a divorce and living alone.
The five small, fragmented pieces are all taken from a 5’ by 5’ painting on paper. The story of my life has changed the content of this painting. Taking fragments of the composition to create a new conversation was my focus for these pieces. My surroundings, politically and personally, always affects my creative process and all my pieces in this show express these emotions.

Pinwheel Gallery is proud to present Melissa Bloom, one of the fantastic artists in “Road Kill” (Opening 10/2/2026)!!

Melissa Bloom is a Cleveland Heights painter and book maker. Her work has been shown at Fairmount Center for the Arts, Ashtabula Arts Center, Pinwheel Gallery, Heights Arts, University Hospitals, Morgan Conservatory, All Matters Gallery, and Delires de Livres (Chartes, France). She has a permanent piece at the Cleveland LGBT Center as well as in private collections. She has won several awards for her paintings; most recently, 2nd Place and Honorable Mention at the Fairmount Center for the Arts, and Honorable Mention in the 2023 and 2025 Paul and Norma Tikkanen Painting Prize in Ashtabula.

Melissa says:
I work in a lot of different media. For this collection, my work is done in oil, ink, and acrylic with graphite.
These images are about the irrevocable past: extinct, dead, and forgotten. They include
• Creatures that became extinct due to human actions of one kind or another.
• Birds that have died from blunt force trauma from a window or car.
• Families that grew up, moved on, left their photos for estate sales and secondhand stores to sell to strangers for pennies.
At the core of these pieces is my belief that the Past is over, but it can be remembered and embraced with tenderness that isn’t maudlin or false. It can be examined without commentary, or it can be embellished with color and charm.

Gallery hours this week!
Join us for the Opening Reception of "Road Kill" this Friday from 5:30 to 8pm!
(please park across the way in the lot at Gabe's Family Dining)
Saturday, regular hours 2pm-6pm

We can't wait to see you walk through the Gallery door!

Opening Reception - Don't Forget!!

Join us at the Gallery for the opening of the ASG’s exhibit “Road Kill” Friday October 2nd from 5:30pm-8pm!

Road Kill is a collection of artwork about aspects of life that have disappeared, been destroyed, or seem insignificant. Our initial reaction might be Does it even matter? The answer might be Yes.

ASG are 7 artists; painters, bookmakers, quilters, and printmakers who have been meeting once a month for over 20 years to talk about their art and creative processes. They support each other's ideas, offer critiques, ask questions, and sometimes eat cookies.

We have introduced several of the ASG members, but stay tuned for the remaining introductions before the show begins!

Road Kill runs from October 2 through November 6. Please check Pinwheel Gallery’s Google listing for current hours.

Parking for Gallery events generously provided by our neighbors across the street, Gabe's Family Dining.

Pinwheel Gallery is proud to present Leslie Nichol, one of the fantastic artists in “Road Kill” (Opening 10/2/2026)!!

Leslie says:
I graduated from The Cleveland Institute of Art in 1984 with an Agnes Gund Memorial Traveling Scholarship Award. After months of travel I settled in Philadelphia for several years where I actively showed my work. I returned to Cleveland in 1995. Since then I have continued to show my work on occasion. I have paintings in several private and public collections including Metro Health and The Cleveland Clinic.

When roadkill was introduced as a theme for our group show, I was reluctant to embrace the idea. After some thought, I considered the figurative sense of the word. The precariousness of life has been a running theme in my work for years. Every move we make has the possibility of being a roadkill decision.
Approaching the subject from the literal sense of the word felt gruesome. But this show gave me the opportunity to honor the victims of roadkill as creatures worthy of attention in a way that I enjoyed painting.

Pinwheel Gallery is proud to present Laura Lee Martin, one of the fantastic artists in “Road Kill” (Opening 10/2/2026)!!

Laura Says:
I graduated from The Cleveland Institute of Art in %$ #@. It took about 6 months to realize commercial photography was not for me, so I got an art-adjacent job in nonprofit membership marketing. Today, I’m the executive director of a national nonprofit that educates curious people about herbs and how to use them. Do I draw and paint a lot of herbs? Yes! Do they always look like herbs? No.

I started painting again after many years of pursuing photography for pleasure and occasional, paid design work. I’ve learned that it’s completely okay to simply create beautiful things because you want to live with them. Because they make you calm and hopeful. Because you admire a yellow calix or the bend of the stem.
The “Road Kill” theme gave me the opportunity to focus on a concept rather than colors or values. And I struggled with that for months. Then I realized that I didn’t have to change my subject matter at all.
The most profound threat to every living thing in the US is the current administration and its billionaire puppeteers.
Bulldozing Big Bend and boxing off the Rio Grande; selling off pieces of Yosemite to tech bros; changing the definition of “HARM” in the endangered species act to allow additional mining, logging and data center construction. This is Road Kill on a national scale.