Photos by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

An original metal tooled artwork on aluminum by Shawsville Middle School artist Tony Smith created this metal-tooled work on aluminum.

Jean Galloway of Christiansburg hangs artwork in the new George A. Gray Gallery in the Meadowbrook Community Center in Shawsville. The new East Mont Arts Association is having its first show, titled "Art with a Heart," which runs through Feb. 28.

Shawsville Middle School art students Franklin Vishneski (left) and Jessica Vishneski hang artwork by their fellow students at the Meadowbrook Community Center.

SHAWSVILLE -- A group of art lovers wants more art in Shawsville.

The exhibit "Art with a Heart" opened Saturday. It's the first sponsored by the EastMont Arts Association, a group of artists and art supporters from the Shawsville-Elliston area of eastern Montgomery County.

When the former Meadowbrook Nursing Home in Shawsville got its new life as the Meadowbrook Center in 2007, also added were a library, YMCA, community room, recreation room and an art gallery named after donor George A. Gray.

"So since we had a gallery, why not have an art association to fill it?" said Linda Wilson, EastMont Arts Association president.

So last summer the EastMont Arts Association was born.

The gallery remained empty until a $500 grant received last fall from the Community Foundation of the New River Valley and about $650 in proceeds from November's Good Stuff Sale featuring donated home items and decor allowed the group to buy brackets to hang artwork on the concrete walls.

"It makes me feel like I'm not isolated, that there are people that support my work," said Elliston artist Linda Bostic Smith.

"And it provides more encouragement for anybody who might be shy about their work to have a place to show."

Bostic Smith has two pieces in the show, including a pen and ink and pastels piece about her childhood in Craig County called"Appalachian Tapestry" and a new creation called a "Doorstop Gnome."

The gnome is something Bostic Smith made for friends at Christmas using a brick for a doorstop with a fabric gnome figurine on top. She decided at the last minute to add to the show.

"Sometimes your family encourages you and likes what you do, but when you actually see it in a show, it gives it a whole new meaning," Bostic Smith said.

The "Art with a Heart" theme didn't only apply to Valentine's Day. Shawsville artist Diane Relf created a piece for the show dealing with a more personal subject -- her recent heart attack.

Relf creates altered art, in which an artist takes everyday objects and reassembles them, such as the red carrying case that opens to reveal a plastic heart -- a nod to her heart attack.

"A goal I have is to give people a new way of seeing things and chuckle or smile," Relf said. "It's about combining things in unique, unexpected ways and seeing things differently."

Plans for the art association aren't limited to just exhibits, Wilson said. The group is trying to find volunteers to teach guitar lessons and performing arts classes.

"The art association is building from the ground up," because other parts of the New River Valley, namely Blacksburg and Floyd, are more recognized as art centers than the EastMont area, Wilson said.

"We're trying to build an arts community here so people don't have to just go to Blacksburg or Floyd," she said. "We want art in the entire region."