Tara Pocket WHAT Glass painting, glass mosaics, "floorals", design, watercolours, acrylics WHERE Gallery Gift Shop, 158 John St. N., Arnprior, 623-7399 WHY "I have to."       Previous Artist Trading Cards

Tara Pocket - A Pocket Full of Art
By Sally Hansen

Art is to Tara Pocket as eating is to the rest of us - it nourishes, supports and sustains her. Her inexorable passion for creating art has changed the lives of her parents and husband, and the look of downtown Arnprior.

Tara is completely eclectic and fearless in her highly original approach to art. As I enter the new venue of Arnprior's Gallery Gift Shop at 158 John St. N. where Tara is co-owner, designer, exhibiting artist, and much more, I am struck by the marvellous blend of functional modernity with heritage charm and beauty. I am also struck by Tara's ingenious "floorals" - she has painted "rugs" on the Gallery floor that add to the inimitable style of this unique, Africa-flavoured shop.

A Mosaic of Possibility
"I can't stick to one thing because everything is so interesting!" she explains as I photograph her painted glass vases, her painted glass balls, her "floorals", her mosaics, the wonderful watercolour paintings hanging in her apartment. In spite of the bandages on her fingers, Tara identifies glass mosaics as her favourite medium. "I love making a puzzle; I love the colours you can get with glass. I'm very lucky that the Gallery provides me with my livelihood so that I'm free to do the art I want to do."

Luck is a minor part of the equation. "I would have been an architect if I had been better in math," Tara confides as she shows me around the wonderful new space she has designed and created with her parents. The Pockets have relocated and expanded the Gallery Gift Shop by building an addition to the original site on a former parking lot located kitty-corner across from Arnprior's historical Town Museum / Clock Tower. In the process, Tara also designed a marvellous apartment/studio for herself and her husband above the Gallery. One measure of their success was their receipt in February of the "In-Fill/Addition" award under Arnprior's Architectural Conservation Recognition Program. Tara happily blames her family for her success and enjoyment - they are working together again on restoring an old country church into a home for her parents.

Ukama
In Zimbabwe, "ukama" means extended family. The story of how the new gallery came to be is also the story of Tara's life. Born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Tara came to Canada at the age of seven when the family fled the War of Independence in Rhodesia in 1979, leaving everything behind. Because Tara's mother is from Renfrew, they settled first in Pakenham. They moved to Calgary for six years when Tara's dad was transferred by Dome Petroleum. When his job evaporated in 1987, Superior Photo was for sale in Arnprior, and her enterprising parents bought it and expanded the business to include picture framing and art supplies.

"I had always drawn, but it was so neat having art supplies so easily available! I tried glass painting when Wallack's gave us a demo kit, and I loved it." In 1991 she graduated from Algonquin's Graphic Design program, and got a job. "I only stayed four months - they didn't have a pencil in the shop. I can't create without something more than a rodent in my hand!"

In 1990 her parents had bought the building and parking lot at 148-152 John St. N. at the centre of Arnprior. The entire Pocket family pitched in gutting and renovating before opening the original Gallery Gift Shop on the second floor in 1994. Their beautiful restoration of the historical late-1800s building earned it a spot on the town's Millennium Heritage Trail (www.townarnprior.on.ca/heritage_trail_photos.htm). It is known locally as the "Where Friends Meet" building, housing the Arnprior Bookstore and Bonnie Jane's Scones on the first floor, and now the Attic Toy Shop on the second.

Together, Tara and her father, Anthony Pocket, ran the first Gallery Gift Shop until Tara decided to move to Johannesburg where she shared a house and started a web design company with her cousin. "I'm third-generation Rhodesian, I was born in Africa, I've done a lot of buying trips for the Gallery, and I wanted to live there." But after a few years she started to worry about building a future. During one of her trips home, she realised she wanted the Gallery to be her future. She persuaded her parents to expand their business with her in the new, exciting space they conceived and designed.

While living in South Africa she met her husband-to-be, James Jack, who had a business, a house and his family in 'Joburg'. Love triumphed; James planned the entire wedding, and the couple married in Joburg in April, 2001. James is now an integral part of Gallery Gift Shop too.

A Parking Lot Full of Art
For Tara Pocket, art is life. It wasn't until she graciously invited me into her apartment above the Gallery Gift Shop that I realised the full extent of her commitment to creating art. The apartment is a wonderful, open, gallery/studio/workshop space with a few incidentals like a bedroom and a bathroom thrown in. Art and art-in-the-making are everywhere. When you visit Gallery Gift Shop (158 John St. N., Arnprior, 623-7399), look for Tara's painted glass vases and balls, her mosaics, her "floorals"; but most of all, see what she has created out of a parking lot!