All the world’s a peace of art at Dixon gallery

DIXON – All the world’s a canvas for Joyce and Rick Moser.

When it comes to creating artwork, they not only think outside the box, the couple may wind up using one in their pieces. The pair has an eye for seeing the potential is everything, giving everyday objects Renewed lease on life as pieces of art.

The Mosers own Renew Me Gallery in downtown Dixon, which opened in late July, a “destination for inspiration” where customers will find art, plants, jewelry, vintage gifts, and more. The shop is the latest addition to the city’s growing fine arts and culture scene.

Through their work, they show how art can be created out of just about anything – old watches, worn out belts, rusted toys or even jewelry that hasn’t seen the light of day in years. What some consider trash they consider a treasure, fodder for pieces that each creates separately, or sometimes together.

A pile of cast-offs can be like Christmas morning to Joyce, who loves to unwrap the potential for pieces of this, that and the other, turning them into one-of-a-kind, eye-catching creations.

“I love to do art and love to take things so that it’s not going into a landfill,” Joyce said. “I like to make art of it again. I’ll bring jewelry, glass, just whatever I see that inspires me and then break it up and make something new out of it, and hopefully inspire joy for anybody who has it.”

Joyce has long enjoyed turning something old into something new, and for the past 35 years, she’s shared that joy with the man who’s been her partner in life, and recently, her partner in business.

She and Rick have been married for more than 35 years, and he’s enjoyed lending his time and talent to Joyce’s projects as well as his own.

“We’ve had collections of our own throughout our life,” Rick said. “We enjoy music-related things, fashion-related things, and plants, and we’ve done all sorts of things on and off to utilize them in other ways throughout our life. This is our first time having our own full-fledged gallery and store.”

The Mosers are new to Dixon, having moved to town a year ago from the western Chicago suburbs. In getting to know their new community, they discovered that their love for art and music and penchant for creativity blended well with fellow art lovers in town. They have gotten to know people involved with The Next Picture Show art gallery, Rosbrook Studio and Dixon Stage Left, and it’s made them feel welcome.

While Joyce and Rick’s aren’t new to selling their work – having done it previously through internet sales and social media – they felt now was the right time to set up a brick-and-mortar shop and Dixon was the right place, with its growing arts scene. When Dixon Chamber of Commerce and Main Street’s downtown incubator building was seeking a new tenant, the Mosers stepped forward and started sharing their creations.

“We were looking for a way to expand our reach with our art,” Rick said. “We were originally online and doing a lot with e-commerce and social media. As I started to see some things here, I thought if we could combine a little storefront, or share space with someone, to have a local presence as well, and be a hub to do more things, then that would be a neat fit.”

The gallery includes some of Joyce’s favorite works, including a piece titled “Number Nine,” which consists of a mannequin’s chest covered in watches and watchbands, topped off with a clock and dried stems, with all the time pieces set to 9 o’clock.

Another favorite piece of Joyce’s is one that was inspired by one of her nephews: “Gadgets in My Pockets,” a square canvas covered in trinkets and random objects.

Seeing the artistic potential in objects comes naturally to the two – “We’re kind of creative cats,” Joyce said, and there’s little out there she can’t find nine lives for: vases, old toys, scraps of cloth … “As long as I can reuse it somehow,” she said.

Rick uses his background in interior landscape and design to create pieces of plant art, turning items into plant holders, like an old toy Jeep that now hauls around a plant in the back.

Even toy instruments can play a different tune, as part of Renew Me’s guitar art collection. Paper Jamz toy guitars are decorated with old jewelry or other trinkets, fabric scraps, and other items. The couple’s love of music can be seen elsewhere in the shop, too: custom spiral drawings of popular musicians such as Prince, Madonna and John Lennon affixed to LPs, as well as a display of colorful sheet music books.

The Mosers encourage people to stop by often, as their labor of love is a work in progress. What you see today maybe gone tomorrow. Pieces at the gallery will come and go, displays change, and the couple plans to expand their inventory to include some vintage musical instruments, as well as greeting cards, buttons and magnets made by artists they have come to know.

They also plan to make customers part of the creative process, allowing them to bring things in that the Mosers can make something out of, whether it’s the customer’s brainchild or the Mosers’.

“Art is subjective,” Joyce said. “Every single thing isn’t going to turn everyone on, but for somebody it will. They’ll come in and go, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen that!’ I have the stories on how I made them.”

The Mosers operate their shop with a philosophy of “reclaim, repurpose, rejoice,” to project a positive message of peace, love, beauty, inclusion, honor, compassion, kindness and joy.

“We want to make sure our shop is inclusive,” Joyce said. “That’s important to us. To us, people are lovely. It’s nice to be in the community, talk to people and get to know everybody’s vibe. It’s a cool thing.”

“Our message is peace and love,” Joyce said. “I’m a peace and love lady, I always say goodbye that way. It’s important. We just want to pass along kindness.”

They also want to share the love with fellow artists, offering gallery space as a place where artists both aspiring and experienced can display their work for show or sale and make headway in the local arts scene. From Sept. 7 to Oct. 1, an exhibit titled “Colors of Joy” featured multi-colored works from other artists that promoted the same kind of positive vibes that the Mosers embrace. Artists included Karen Tucker, David Bingaman, Nora Kate Balayti, Hilary Guerrero and Zack Martin, along with Joyce herself.

October’s exhibit is a timely theme, to go along with Halloween: “Creative Creatures” showcases works of spooky and quirky lifeforms.

The Mosers are also big believers in the power of music and its ability to inspire and connect people, and visitors to the gallery can hear – and see – that message come to life in music videos played a the gallery. The songs are part of “Playing for Change,” a worldwide music project that features street musicians and singers from around the globe who play music of all kinds: rhythm and blues, reggae, soul, gospel, rock, country, and more.

“It’s neat and satisfying to know that someone can get pleasure out of what we do,” Rick said. “That’s what we’re about, helping people experience joy through seeing things and interacting with them.”

Even the gallery itself is a piece of history renewed. The 60-by-30-foot, one story building was originally built in 1900 and housed an array of businesses until 1993. The building then became the Chamber and Main Street’s offices up until a a few years ago; it still owns the building and uses it as an incubator for aspiring businesses until they’re ready to have a place of their own. The incubator program provides discounted rent and developmental and promotional support, helping businesses build up a customer base while keeping operating costs low. Recent tenants include J Boutique, who moved into space elsewhere downtown, and Willy Floral Co., which now continues as a home-based and pop-up business in town.

The Mosers have enjoyed being a part of the Dixon community, and plan to make the best out of their downtown gallery.

“It’s really great. I like talking with people that have come in, and with the other business people in town,” Rick said. “As people find out about us, and get to know about us, we hope they’re like: ‘This is really cool! We’re going to tell our friend,’ or sister, or whoever. There’s been momentum growing about us being here and what we do, and that’s been a lot of fun.”

Renew Me Gallery, 115 South Hennepin Ave., is open from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday, noon to 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and by appointment Sunday through Tuesday.

For information, find it on Facebook or Instagram @renewmegallery, go to renewmegallery.com or call 815-200-4885.