Behind every piece of art there’s a story. Sometimes that’s a story of dreams realized, or the beginning of a dream.

Those stories and dreams were recently on display at the first “Follow Your HeART” fine arts show exclusively for amateur artists. The one-day show was held Saturday, April 22, at the McCaughen & Burr Fine Arts Gallery in the Old Webster Business District.

Open to all 2-D mediums, ages and levels of artistic talent, 40 artists ranging in age from 5 to 76 years old exhibited work in 67 separate submissions and the show drew roughly 200 visitors.

Afghanistan native and St. Louis transplant Arezo Sahel, a 23-year-old mother of two, was overjoyed to share her work at the show. Husband Amin Sahel shared that his wife always loved to paint and draw. 

While in Afghanistan, her parents took her to art courses, where she started learning the basics. She couldn’t continue her lessons because of safety concerns, but always hoped that one day she could start painting again and find an opportunity to display her art in public. 

When the couple arrived in the United States in 2021, Arezo Sahel asked her husband to buy her some painting accessories so she could “continue her incomplete dream.” When a friend suggested she participate in the “Follow your HeART” show, Amin Sahel saw his wife’s eyes fill with tears of excitement.  

With limited tools, Arezo Sahel created two acrylic paint pieces, “Mountains of Afghanistan” and “Creve Coeur Lake.” 

“United States is the land of opportunities. My wife’s dreams and desires were buried until we came here and she felt secure to go ahead and do what she really wants to do,” said Amin Sahel, who lives with his family in Fenton. “Arezo was so happy and counted every day to get to event day. For some people this could be just an event, but for artists, this meant the world.”

That was also true for Webster Groves resident Kim Pepple, who seized the opportunity to show off a reproduction of his late father’s Ernie Pyle cartoon-strip artwork, along with two of his original artboards from 75 years ago. Ernie Pyle was a renowned frontline combat war correspondent from 1940-1945.  

Kim Pepple’s father, R. Ted Pepple, returned to St. Louis after completing his World War II military duty. His real ambition was to be a sports cartoonist for the local newspaper, but life took a difference course. He got an English degree, married the love of his life, Doloris Specht, had six children, and worked in marketing and public relations. 

In 1945, he researched, wrote and drew a serious comic strip of the inspiring life and tragic death of American journalist Ernie Pyle, but the comic strip was never published. No one even knew it existed until Pepple’s children were cleaning out his storage locker after his death in 2014. 

Brothers Kim and Rob Pepple, lifelong residents of Webster Groves, were headed to the dumpster when sisters Kathy Bailey of Brentwood and Dianne Wichenheiser of Glendale insisted on unpeeling the newspaper wrapping to see what was inside. 

Much to their surprise, the siblings found several 24-by-7-inch storyboards with the cartoon illustrations, drawn in Ted Pepple’s hand, with the signature “Pep,” Pepple’s childhood nickname. There were 10 of them.Apparently, a penchant for art runs in the family.

“Adding substantially to my enthusiasm and pride is that my 17-year-old grandson, Keegan, also has a drawing displayed next to his great-grandfather’s handiwork,” Kim Pepple boasted.

Aspiring artist Keegan Pepple watched lots of cartoons and read comics. It was only natural for him to sketch some of his favorite characters. He explored many different art mediums in art class and even designed a skateboard deck. His favorite — pencil drawings. 

Keegan Pepple was inspired to explore his creative side by Laura Lebeda, his art teacher at St. John Vianney High School.

“She motivated me to draw, saying, ‘Force yourself. Sit down and once you get started, you’ll gain momentum and follow through.’” 

Eight-year-old budding artist Lucy Corelli who is in third grade at Avery Elementary in Webster Groves was excited to show her watercolor piece entitled “Song Birds of Spring.” 

“It was really cool to know that a piece of art that I made was being seen by lots of other people, and that they might like it. It felt special,” she said. “I used a lot of different colors for the birds, and I liked the way the colors of the tree blended and how the leaves looked on the small branches.”

St. Louis Community College art professor Annie Smith Piffel had several students exhibiting work in the show. 

“I’ve witnessed growth in all my students who had the opportunity to exhibit here,” she said.

The first-time event was coordinated by Webster Groves resident Dave Buck. A 70-year-old amateur artist himself, he set out to bring this brainchild to fruition.

“I did the event for two reasons — to bring the community together and to have fun,” he said.

Buck contacted Scott Kerr, who co-owns McCaughen & Burr with his daughter Sara.  Buck presented his idea to provide an opportunity to create community through arts, which would be open to any amateur, unjuried, with no awards. Kerr, being community-minded and a consummate supporter of the arts, opened his doors to the event, a generous act Buck credits for the show’s success. 

“I’m grateful for the Webster Groves community for supporting this independent art source,” Buck said. “There’s no other forum in the world that can lift people up and bring them together like the arts can.”