Exhibit shows how young artist’s work developed over years

By Jon Moffett

The local artist’s work is being displayed at the Eastwood Mall.

NILES — Though she’s still enjoying her summer vacation, Nikki Mehle is already thinking about Christmas cards.

That’s because the 17-year-old Canfield resident has designed and drawn her family’s Christmas cards for the past nine years.

“She’s been making our Christmas cards for what will be the 10th year in a row now,” said her mother, Irene. “Some of the people who get them have been collecting them all.”

A few of those cards, along with about 50 other pieces of Nikki’s personal collection of about 200, are featured in the Art Outreach Gallery at the Eastwood Mall in Niles. The collection features pieces from 1997 to present.

“I’ve had a couple of pieces here with my art teacher, Kathy Young, and there was a good response for it,” Nikki said. “So, they asked me to do a retrospective show with my earliest work progressing to what I’m working on now.”

Gail Stark, committee chairwoman for the gallery, said it’s the first student retrospective exhibit to be featured. The gallery is located across from American Eagle near the J.C. Penney entrance. Visitors are welcome to view the free exhibit 5 to 9 p.m. Fridays, 1 to 9 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays.

Nikki, a senior at Canfield High School, has been involved in art since she was 6. She said she was always participating in arts and crafts in preschool and in kindergarten.

“I love everything about art,” she said. “I just like that it’s a way of expressing things. You can really tell a story with a picture.”

Though her preferred method is painting, Nikki has dabbled in sketching, mosaic and even sculpture. A small statue of Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet and an untitled abstract piece are featured in the exhibit.

“I’m really into acrylic,” she said. “I’ve been working with acrylic since I was real young, so I’m very comfortable with it. I just started doing pastels and oils recently, and I really like pastels, and I’d like to improve on doing oil painting.”

She prefers to paint portraits — something many artists shy away from.

“You can see how I definitely improved when it comes to making a portrait look like who it’s supposed to be,” she said. “Now portraits come easy to me.”

Nikki hopes to attend either the Columbus College of Art and Design or Cleveland Institute of Art next year and major in fine art with a concentration in painting. She said her ultimate goal is to make a living as an artist by selling her work and to teach art at the college level.

She hopes her exhibit inspires others to explore their own forms of creativity the same way her parents and teachers have inspired her.

“I think expression is important,” she said. “Music is a different outpost of creativity, and art is the same way. You can say so many things with just one picture. ... Obviously my work wasn’t as good then as it is now, so hopefully when kids come through, they can see that no matter what level they are now, if they work at it for years and years, they can end up where I am now or even exceed that.”

Hard work and dedication, Nikki said, are important elements of succeeding at anything. She said she could spend four or five weeks on one project. Add in time for school and work at Tinseltown in Boardman, and she finds herself very busy.

But devoting all the time to her hobby is worth it, she said. Art, to her, is more than just a hobby — it’s an individual expression.

And that, she said, is what makes the world interesting.

jmoffett@vindy.com