Neon Raspberry Art House in Occidental

Creativity is the star of the show at Neon Raspberry Art House on Main Street in Occidental.

One side of the venue is a boutique overflowing with vintage clothes, housewares, crafts and other eccentric and eclectic doodads by independent designers from west county and the surrounding area.

The other side is a tiny art gallery with 6 to 7 exhibits that change several times a year. The gallery mostly shows the work of emerging queer and BIPOC artists.

Throughout the year, Neon Raspberry Art House owner Mahea Campbell also schedules community events such as readings, poetry slams, dance parties and more. Her goal: To cultivate a place where locals and visitors alike can enrich their souls by celebrating the creative spirit.

“We are a community space that offers this community space,” said Campbell, 48. “We exist to make art and creativity accessible and present in Occidental and west county, and accessible and present in a way that makes everyone feel included and welcome.”

Neon Raspberry Art House was born in 2012. As Campbell likes to tell the story, she was walking down Main Street in Occidental, she spotted the empty storefront, and the space just spoke to her. She loved the intimacy of the town, the creative vibe. A few weeks after she signed a lease, she opened an art gallery in the part of the current space that is now the shop.

She named the place after a phrase in the Marge Piercy poem, “To Have Without Holding.”

Initially, her strategy was to show work that makes people happy and also challenges them to think.

“To have a diversity of experiences shown helps to create more creativity and more questions,” she said. “My overall desire for this world is to create less hate and more empathy.”

For the first three years Neon Raspberry Art House was almost exclusively an art house. Gradually, she started carrying limited merchandise. One of the vendors she began carrying was Hinterland, a small silk-screening outfit from Humboldt County. When that company chose to move down to Sonoma County, they joined forces and the businesses cohabitated in the same space.

Eventually, Neon Raspberry Art House annexed the modest real-estate office next door and punched through the wall.

The main room became exclusively a boutique and the new room became the gallery. The venue now functions simultaneously as both — offering guests art to admire and art to purchase and take away.

A boutique filled with fun, vintage items

The boutique side of the business is the kind of place that elicits a smile from everyone who enters.

Displays are a busy hodgepodge of everything from pins and artwork to cards and jewelry. On a recent visit there were felt earrings in the shape of vegetables, eye pillows crafted to look like pudgy babies, votive candles emblazoned with 1980s celebrities, and colorful pins depicting the brain scans of individuals with different neurotypes.

A rack of cards was practically overflowing with one-of-a-kind zingers; one read: “Let’s get naked and alphabetize bookshelves,” another depicted a forlorn kitty below the slogan, “I didn’t lie. I told my truth.”

Campbell rotates products regularly, and there’s no guarantee that something in the store this weekend will be there a month from now.

“I try to keep it interesting,” she said. “There are so many creative artists around here.”

Neon Raspberry Art House also always has one rack of shirts (including some from Hinterland), and two racks of vintage clothes. Local entrepreneur Jolene Beilstein manages the vintage part of the business, sourcing items from all over the Bay Area.

Beilstein, who lives in Graton, hand-selects every piece, prioritizing unique items made of natural fibers. Most of the items are from the 1980-2000, and she admitted she has a “soft spot” for oversize silk button-up shirts. She also tries to find garments with out-of-the-ordinary cuts and patterns.

“Overall, I try to offer a range of unique pieces to inspire our customers imagination, creativity and personal expression,” she said. Beilstein added that she does not categorize the clothing into gendered selections — a nod to inclusion and gender-fluidity.

Gallery that elevates LGBTQIA+, BIPOC voices

The gallery side is one tiny room off to the right as you enter the space; red graffiti from a previous street art show remains in two spots on the white walls.

Campbell tries to book at least one show per quarter, and she strives to use the gallery to elevate the voices of those who are often underrepresented in society today: LGBTQIA+ artists, BIPOC artists and others.

The current exhibit, “Selections from Boycott: The Art of Economic Activism,” comprises historical and contemporary posters produced by the American Friends Service Committee and the Center for the Study of Political Graphics. The pieces deal with hot-button issues such as sweatshops, price gouging, union-busting and big corporations doing nefarious or unethical things with their money.

In all, the exhibit comprises about 20 small posters. It runs through June 2.

The gallery is often used for other purposes as well; Campbell has been known to pair openings with dance parties in the space. Revelers also come to dance in the gallery during Occidental Pride, and on holidays.

Videos on Neon Raspberry Art Gallery’s website and Instagram page capture these scenes from recent events.

Kelly Gray, an artist and writer who lives near Camp Meeker, has attended some of these soirees, and said she appreciates and admires the eclecticism with which Campbell operates the gallery.

“ (Campbell) brings artists to the gallery who are deeply immersed in their craft and pushing at the edges of what it means to make art, who gets to make art, and who gets to see art,” said Gray, whose books are for sale in the Neon Raspberry boutique. “If you follow these artists’ trajectories, you’ll see Neon Raspberry is an incubator for folks who continue to make work that has something necessary to say.”

Lots happening over summer

Gray is a big part of the summer plans at Neon Raspberry Art Gallery.

Starting June 5, she will spend the first Thursday of every month this summer offering 30-minute private feedback sessions for aspiring poets who want to work on their craft. These sessions will take place under a giant fig tree in the garden behind the shop.

Reservations are recommended, and there is a $20-$30 suggested donation for each encounter. Gray noted that no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

The next gallery exhibit will open during Pride Month (June) and feature John Kaine and Ed McCaughan, two woodcut print makers who live in Oaxaca, Mexico. Campbell said many of the pieces offer different perspectives on homophobia.

Neon Raspberry also will soon expand its hours for the summer months. Typically it’s open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Friday through Monday. Starting June 5, the store also will open at 10 a.m. on Thursdays, and will remain open until the end of the local farmers’ market at 8 p.m.