NEVADA CITY, Calif. June 6, 2025 – In recent weeks, a giant plastic hot dog sitting in the window at 230 Broad Street in downtown Nevada City has caught the eye of locals and visitors alike.
Many are spellbound the moment they step into Wonder Docent, a new art supply shop and creative hub opened just two weeks ago by three “accomplices in curiosity” – Heather Heckler, her life partner of 25 years Liz Matson and childhood bestie Alison Schmidt.
Years in the making, Wonder Docent is a dream project for the trio.
“We’ve put out the bat signal,” said Heckler as she gave a tour of the safe, welcoming space full of color and light on Thursday morning. After 15 years committed to government and the nonprofit sectors in the community, Heckler is all smiles at the helm of this full-time gig where she is fully embracing who she really is.
The team spent months of preparation and worked 12-hour days to softly launch the art shop before Memorial Day Weekend in anticipation of Pride Month and the busy summer season. Their friend, artist Jon Hioki designed the logo.
So far, the shop is filling a local void, tapping into a human need for connection and old school analog creativity. Walls are lined with an assortment of boxes of watercolors, acrylic gouache, pen pal and stationary-nerd supplies, stickers, wooden tables and shelves piled with books about artists and exploring creativity, vintage prints, design and printmaking supplies, radical sewing kits, original ceramics and more. The shop even sells real photography film at a time when digital and AI art is everywhere.
“This is the kind of stuff we want to show off. Our aesthetic is modern, colorful, weirdo, queerdo,” said Heckler, who grew up in Nevada County in the 1980s and 1990s raised on Pee Wee Herman and the B52s.
“Everything we have in here is something we loved and we want to share it with people. I have a crush on all of this stuff,” said Heckler.
In the back of the house, a full schedule of workshops is on the way beginning tonight from 6 – 9 p.m. during First Friday Art Walk featuring printmaker Chris Dacre and his Woodzilla hand press. He’ll be showing folks how to make linocut prints on fabric squares.
Locals know but will hardly recognize the space that housed the Gray Goose just a few months ago, a quirky store where Matson’s aunt, Stuey Weills sold whimsical and sometimes naughty wares for more than three decades. In January, Weills closed her beloved shop of 36 years to focus on her health after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Fans were heartbroken by the news.
Matson and her brother John grew up working in their aunt’s shop and it is a place that feels like home. It was a natural evolution for her to step in.
“This space became available and we had to jump at it,” Heckler said.
For months, the three business owners worked to transform the space, painting fresh white over 11 different colors on the walls, sanding the floors and pulling out what seemed like hundreds of thousands of hooks, pins and nails.
“We wanted it to feel real. For me, part of me wants it to feel like a studio,” said Heckler.
A corner of the shop pays tribute to Gray Goose with throwbacks like silly glasses, plastic wrapped “poop in pocket” and of course, rubber chickens.
A Giant Experiment
The idea for Wonder Docent started during the pandemic when out of boredom, Heckler, Schmidt and other close friends started hanging out, drawing together.
“It was the first time I allowed myself to do art for so long,” said Heckler.
A lifelong doodler whose mom regularly bought her art supplies, like many adults, Heckler had stopped making time for art. Schmidt made zines in the 1990s and had always been a maker of things while Matson was a “super secret creative person.”
But for years, they played it safe, went to college, landed grownup, responsible jobs that provided them with a sense of financial security. But something was missing. Years of therapy and an identity crisis later revealed a truth that Heckler could no longer ignore.
“I realized I’m a creative person and I need to be doing that. It was a crazy process of getting back to myself,” said Heckler.
Though she had taken every creative class she could at Sierra College, it wasn’t until she was deep in the rigors of an online watercolor class taught by Serena Cole that she began to take her art seriously.
“It was the first time I was committed to learning a medium. That opened me up,” said Heckler.
Meeting regularly for their art club, the friends started fantasizing of someday opening a shop of their own. Not finding the art supplies they needed in town led them on a creative journey to places like Case for Making, an art supply store in San Francisco where they found handcrafted watercolor paints, Crush and Touch art supply in Los Angeles and Hey There Products in Joshua Tree. What if they opened something like this in Nevada City?
At this time, a shift occurred. The focus was becoming less about them and more about the community.
“In the circles we’ve been in, there is a spirit of lifting people up,” said Heckler. Now she is helping others learn what she discovered – it’s not about the outcome, it’s about the process and letting go of judgement and the inner critic.
“It’s very therapeutic. Humans are creative beings. It’s about using that, channeling that creative instinct,” said Heckler.
An avid supporter for the community her entire career, Heckler, Matson and Schmidt are now building and part of a community of young, creative people magically drawn to the inspiration they offer. Support is pouring in from The City of Nevada City, Nevada City Chamber of Commerce, Nevada County Arts Council and businesses like Kitkitdizze across the street, Abstrakt next door, Winnie Superette on Commercial Street and Full Circle Press.
“I feel connected to the entire ecosystem. This is such an artistic community. This is something that has been missing,” said Heckler, who admits she never felt safe growing up queer in Nevada County.
“In some ways this is creating the space we wish we had. It feels like such a breath of fresh air. In these times we all have to do what we do best and I want to be talking to people about weird projects and help them get there, make their visions come true,” said Heckler.
Their list of core customers includes locals who identify as goth, punk, queer and weirdo along with a creative community of professional and amateurartists, and people who love bold, colorful art and design.
Nevada City has long been a mecca for artists and Wonder Docent pays tribute to the legacy of the town’s early creatives.
In the 1960s and 70s, designers and printmakers David Osborn and Charles Woods, an openly gay couple, helped preserve iconic fixtures in a sleepy gold rush town falling into disrepair. They encouraged their San Francisco friends to migrate to the area and a renaissance was born ushering in the conservation of the Assay Office and the South Yuba Canal Building (now the Chamber of Commerce), the Miners Foundry Cultural Center, Nevada Theater and the launch of KVMR community radio. “The Loft” above what is now J.J. Jackson’s on Commercial Street was a hotbed of creative ideas and community gatherings.
Today, Wonder Docent holds the remaining Osborn-Woods estate, purchased from Matson’s father who was roommates with Woods. Customers can purchase vivid prints from the couple’s “Seasons” collection along with block prints on rice paper by celebrated Oakland-born artist Beverly Hackett who moved to Nevada County with her artist husband Richard in 1949.
“We want to honor what they did for the community,” said Heckler.
So, what’s with the name, Wonder Docent? The idea came about while on a vacation at Sea Ranch in Sonoma County watching docents in yellow vests tend to tourists and seal pups on the beach. Salem Peterson, a friend and high school science teacher in Oakland was wrestling with how to spark curiosity among her English as Second Language students, many who were struggling with hardships as refugees in a new country.
“What if there was a docent for wonder? What if there was someone who helps you see the world? Growing up here, you’re surrounded by beauty and you forget to see it. Wonder Docent, this shop is a giant experiment. For me, it’s a lifesaving mission,” said Heckler. Learn more at wonderdocent.com
Editor’s note:
Local artists featured in the shop right now:
- Studio Caliari- hand-built ceramics
- Keep It Weird Creations- glass objects
- Miriam Morris- hand-built ceramics
- Jon Hioki- paintings, stickers, zine
- Brook Caballero- illustrated book
- Heather Heckler- prints
- Osborn/Woods- vintage screenprints and lithographs
- Beverly Hackett- vintage woodblock prints