27 May Peekskill’s Pineal Eye: Where Art and Spirit Collide

By Joshua Anderson for the Peekskill Business Improvement District

Tucked behind the Bean Runner Café is a charming little shop, Third Eye Arts, where spirit and art collide.

“First and foremost, it’s a gallery,” said Dr. Nadine Gordon-Taylor, a lifelong artist, former educator, and founder of Peekskill’s only metaphysical art gallery.

The Third Eye Arts gallery is located at 201 South Division Street. It offers colorful paintings, stained glass, mosaics and hand-illustrated oracle decks that visitors can browse, or even use in a free reading.

Gordon-Taylor offers her own oracle card readings from decks published by Inner Traditions Bear and Company.  These are insightful and intuitive sessions that help visitors reflect on what they already know inside themselves. Her work is along the lines of a spiritual therapist, as she is highly educated and very empathetic.

Her journey began in childhood, “I was always an artist. I was born an artist,” Gordon-Taylor said.

After studying at the Art Students League and earning degrees from Hunter College, Long Island University and Columbia University, she spent three decades teaching art in Westchester. “Art is my oxygen and my blood,” Gordon-Taylor said.

Now 71, Gordon-Taylor continues showing up nearly every day, rain or snow, welcoming visitors into her world of symbolism and spirituality.

She also takes on some private commissions which she has been doing for 15 years.

Gordon-Taylor channels intuitive impressions and translates them into uniquely custom paintings, a process that can take several months.

Her process includes receiving initial information, such as getting the person’s birth name and date, as well as researching symbolic details that resonate with the subject. Gordon-Taylor makes it clear that these aren’t just random images, but universal messages.

The healing she offers is about self-discovery, personal empowerment and a deeper spiritual connection, rather than prescriptive suggestions or drugs.
These commissions can often involve extensive writing, sometimes up to 12 pages, before a final sketch emerges.

Gordon-Taylor emphasizes that the magic isn’t in the card reader, but in the individual’s own intuition: “The message is coming from your higher self — it’s you doing it, not me.”

Masha, Gordon-Taylor’s adopted daughter, discussed how happy customers are when leaving the store and the healing her mother brings to visitors.

“It’s hard to run a small business, it takes a lot of work. I give her a lot of credit,” Masha said.

Most of the pieces for sale are done on giclée prints, high-resolution replicas that capture the soul of the originals.

“If you want to experience beauty on a profoundly deep level, you should walk in,” Gordon-Taylor said.

Visitors often describe seeing uncanny synchronicities, a piece which is seemingly calling out to them, as if it were waiting patiently for the right person.

The store is a metaphysical sanctuary, offering healing and community for those who come to seek it. It’s for anyone who is curious about healing and profound art, not just “believers” of the metaphysical.

The store is open from 10 am to 5 pm from Tuesday through Saturday, noon on Sundays, and closed on Mondays.

The Third Eye Arts website encourages you to stop by for a free oracle card reading from Gordon-Taylor herself, take a peek at her colorful gallery and maybe grab a bite at the Bean Runner Cafe.

The whimsical pig sculpture and dog portrait paintings featured here are the work of Doris Renza, a local artist represented by Third Eye Arts. The stained-glass sign was crafted by Alison Pasco, whose studio is located on the third floor of the historic Flat Iron Building.

While in Downtown Peekskill, be sure to visit our other shops: The Lounge House, Jeanstown, Quirkshop, 222MuchSwag, and Stark Vintage. If you are a downtown business and would like to be considered for an upcoming profile article, please email us at peekskillbid1@gmail.com.

 

      

(C) 2024 Peekskill Business Improvement District. Photos by Joshua Anderson. Edited by Bill Powers. 
If you are a downtown destination business, and would like to be considered for an upcoming profile article, please email us at peekskillbid1@gmail.com.