Sherri Heitz
Having been a member of the PebbleCreek Art Club for over three years and becoming very active, I have developed a strong desire to learn more about its history and felt many of you newbies would appreciate learning about it as well.
This is a story about how your passion for something can take you on a journey to levels above and beyond your expectations. The following is a short synopsis of that journey starting with the founders of the PebbleCreek Art Club.
I was able to obtain this information through several devoted art club members who have kept articles and have been with the club since its inception in the early 1990s.
The founders were Bill Cupit (deceased), John Balogh, Dee Smart, Fred Alves, Dottie Mitchell, Donna Richards and Wanda Fencik.
Even today John Balogh and Fred Alves offer their expertise free or on a small donation basis each week. Dee Smart is active in all phases of the club and contributes, and has contributed, her many talents willingly as well. Dottie Mitchell no longer resides in PebbleCreek but is now teaching classes here. Among the founders there have been a number of officers and others (all volunteers) who have contributed greatly over these many years.
How many years? January 24, 2015, marked 18 years for our club.
The first slate of classes was offered in January 1994 with Dee Smart teaching Watercolor; Fred Alves taught Oil and Acrylics and Bill Cupit taught drawing and colored pencil. These classes were free to anyone and were taught in the unfinished kitchen of the Eagle’s Nest Clubhouse. The group eventually moved to the Tennis Center and finally to the Palo Verde Room in the Arts and Crafts Center.
Bill Cupit was instrumental in the planning and completion of the Center as a first home to our growing art community. He became Chairman of the Creative Arts Committee which culminated in the dedication of the Creative Arts Center.
Among his many accomplishments was the restoration of the Eagle Sculpture and he designed the base upon which it stood outside of the Eagle’s Nest Clubhouse in past years. I am quite sure there were others who participated in this endeavor but I have no information as to their names, so forgive me if you are not mentioned. The eagle now flies inside the clubhouse above the fireplace; check it out.
To be continued next month—.