By Megan Wehring
KYLE — Creativity has been a constant haven from a young age for artist Jan Pomeroy. Finding a way to showcase her art during the pandemic seemed nearly impossible, until she turned down an unconventional route when a local dental office stepped in.
Pomeroy is the first artist to be featured at Clear Springs Family Dentistry in Kyle. Owners Dr. David McIntyre and Mandy McIntyre are partnering with local artists to bloom the dental office into a gallery to feature original artwork and help patients feel more comfortable.
“We were looking for ways to shave off the sterile kind of nervousness that people feel when they come to the dental office,” Mandy said. “So filling it with unique and beautiful art pieces makes it a whole different feel.”
Like many, Pomeroy has used art as an escape from reality amid the pandemic chaos.
“I’ve certainly been working on art quite a bit during the pandemic,” Pomeroy said. “There was a while early on that I was discouraged because all my art shows got cancelled for the spring … I was praying about having a one-person art show somewhere but then this art partnership popped up. For an artist, I think it’s awesome.”
Mandy said that while not everybody is artistic, they can still find creativity in unexpected places.
“There has been so much negativity surrounding 2020 and the pandemic,” Mandy said. “But I feel like it’s forced some of us to become creative in unique ways. It caused us to think outside of the box and approach things in a nontraditional way.”
While Pomeroy has explored a range of mediums from wood carving to sculpture, she said her mixed media paintings are stealing the spotlight at the office.
“I use acrylic paint then I will use art papers and I will actually texture the canvases,” Pomeroy said. “I will use ink, pastel and foil. Some of them even have found objects on the paintings. Some of them are abstract and some are representational like birds or flowers.”
David credits Mandy for inspiring him to support local artists inside the dental office.
“It was Mandy’s idea to do this,” David said. “We had this opportunity for our artists in the community to display their work. It’s something special that I never considered before in my practice. It’s been very enjoyable.”
To keep the creativity flowing, David and Mandy are looking to feature more artists and different types of artwork for years to come.
