Boulder’s Jewish community has been left shaken since the antisemitic terror attack on Pearl Street, which just last week claimed the life of victim Karen Diamond.

Since the attack, Boulder JCC’s Messinger Gallery has become something of a sanctuary. On its walls, artist Artie Sandstone’s new exhibit “Smile” beams with bright colors and funky little characters — a stark, but welcome contrast to the heaviness lingering outside its doors.

While the show wasn’t conceived as a response to tragedy, its timing has made it unexpectedly resonant.

“I can’t tell you how many people have come through and just thanked me for putting something so joyful and bright into that space,” Sandstone said.

For visitors still processing grief from the hate crime, “Smile” has offered a new kind of solace: a reminder, in Sandstone’s words, to “stop, smile and wonder.”

On view now at the Messinger Gallery inside the JCC, 6007 Oreg Ave., “Smile” features a colorful selection of works by Sandstone, a Boulder-based pop artist whose technicolor canvases and whimsical characters invite viewers to check their woes at the door and let the weirdness wash over.

Joy Alice Eisenhauer, director of arts, culture and education at the Boulder JCC, first encountered Sandstone’s work in an unexpected setting — a coworking space.

“At the time, he had a studio set up inside this very modern marketing agency environment,” Eisenhauer said. “I remember how immediately striking his work felt, partly because of that contrast — here he was painting playful, chromatic pieces in the middle of this sleek, professional office. His art just stood out.”

However, Sandstone wasn’t quite sure the JCC would display his work.

“I think there was a little hesitation from the gallery about whether my style was a good fit,” he said. “But Joy (Eisenhauer) came to visit my space and reported back to them, like, ‘You’ve got to see this guy’s work.’”

According to Sandstone, the exhibit marked new territory for the gallery. When Alice Messinger, curator and namesake of the gallery, first visited his studio, she told him, “We’ve never done anything like this or had art in this style on the walls.”

The show was installed just before the June 1 terror attack, which happened in front of the Boulder County Courthouse as demonstrators participated in a walk advocating for the release of hostages held by Hamas. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, reportedly firebombed the group, hurling Molotov cocktails. Diamond, one of the victims, died last week at 82, resulting in the Boulder County District Attorney’s office announcing it will file additional charges, including first-degree murder.

Immediately after the attack, staff at the JCC debated canceling the annual arts and culture Jewish Festival on Pearl Street. With support from the community, it was decided that the Jewish Festival would go on. For the festival, Eisenhauer said she wanted to include something that would help the community to process its grief.

“We knew we needed some kind of interactive art activity,” she said. Having just worked with Sandstone to install “Smile,” she reached out. “He was the first person I thought of for this. I called him and asked if he could lead an art-making project, and he immediately agreed.”

At Boulder’s Jewish Festival, one week after the attack, in the same spot, Sandstone brought a blank 50-by-70-inch canvas along and invited attendees to fill it with messages of hope. More than one thousand people participated, he said, from young kids to seniors to “even a MAGA guy who said, ‘We can disagree, but we can’t kill each other.’”

The piece, which Sandstone took home, added color to, and donated back to the JCC, is now part of the organization’s permanent collection. Titled “We All Rise Together When There’s Peace and Love,” the painting, he said, is exactly the kind of work he wants to create.

“That’s what art can do,” Sandstone said. “It brings people together.”

Sandstone didn’t always imagine a life creating art. Born and raised in Miami, he was, by his own description, a “classic ADHD kid” who found early solace in sketching characters while attending a wilderness program as a teenager. He studied marketing at the University of Florida, worked in tech, earned a master’s degree in business, and co-founded a biotech company that eventually went public. Art was something he always returned to, but for many years, he kept it in the background.

“I never really stopped,” Sandstone said. “Even when I was running a company, I was still making art. But I didn’t share it publicly. I thought maybe one day I’d get back to it.”

That day came in March 2024, when he did a joint exhibition at Seidel City gallery in Boulder. Since then, he has committed fully to his work and recently opened a gallery and studio space on Pearl Street, just upstairs from Salt at 1045 Pearl Street, #3. It’s there, in his studio, where Sandstone’s art is born.

His style lives at the corner of pop art and personal philosophy, where cheeky characters, saturated palettes, oversized eyes and wiggly-shaped heads tell stories that are at the same time goofy, yet sincere.

“I just like to make art that makes me smile,” he said. “I’m usually laughing while I’m creating.”

His favorite pieces function like visual reminders to be nice and stay curious.

“A lot of the time I’m trying to communicate something that feels like a public service announcement or a social message, something about being a better, smarter, kinder human. But always with the goal of making people grin,” he said.

Sandstone’s characters consist of oddballs, outcasts and wide-eyed weirdos, each rendered in bold lines and brighter colors, each with their own posture, expression, or tiny smirk that suggests an inner life. There’s Wally Strawberry, who has a bowtie for a nose and doesn’t take himself too seriously. Open Minded, a character who’s shown up everywhere from canvases to T-shirts, is exactly what he sounds like: A reminder, Sandstone said, that “when you approach life with an open mind, the possibilities are endless.”

“My characters, they’re like little ambassadors,” he said. “Each one is trying to deliver a message, even if it’s silly or sweet or strange.”

He added: “If you love an album, you might listen to it a hundred times. But eventually you stop playing it. You buy a piece of art and put it on your wall, it’s there every day. It becomes part of your life. Maybe even gets passed down.”

That’s the kind of connection Sandstone hopes his work will spark.

“That’s what art can do — it brings people together.”

And in the Messinger Gallery, right now, that’s exactly what “Smile” is doing.

“Right now, this space really matters,” Eisenhauer said. “People come in carrying a lot. And when they turn the corner and see Artie’s work, they light up.”

To learn more abou the Messinger Gallery, visit boulderjcc.org and to learn more about Sandstone, visit artiesandstone.com.