By Oregon Coast TODAY
TOLEDO — Spend even a moment in the mill town of Toledo and it becomes obvious why it is regarded as the place where art and industry meet.
The twin pursuits weave together throughout town in the form of murals, galleries and public sculptures set against vistas of the Georgia-Pacific paper mill, train cars and local shipyards.
At the beginning of every month, Toledo celebrates its art community with First Weekend, an opportunity for galleries and studios to open their doors and connect local artisans to the public.
This month’s First Weekend, is Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 5-6.
At 1:30 p.m. Saturday, First Weekend guests can attend the official presentation of a Main Street mural featuring nationally recognized regional artist Michael Gibbons. The mural, painted by well-known muralist Casey McEneny, a friend and mentee of Gibbons, features the artist painting along the banks of the Yaquina River.
Gibbons was a long time Toledo resident and local civic leader in the community for more than three decades, finding constant inspiration from the town’s history and setting amid the naturally beautiful Yaquina River watershed.
“My most powerful work comes from here where I live,” Gibbons once said, “It is in the sacred land that I have found my voice. It continues to speak through my paintings.”
The presentation on Main Street includes short remarks by McEneny, Toledo mayor Rod Cross, Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, Bud Shoemake a retired member of the Port of Toledo, Catherine Rickbone from the Oregon Coast Council of the Arts, artist Marion Moir, and Judy Gibbons, the widow of Michael Gibbons.
After the presentation, the party will continue on at the Museum’s School House Exhibit Space with Mike O’Donnell performing on the porch. There will be cake and champagne in celebration of the mural’s final unveiling.
Meanwhile, the Yaquina Museum of Art will be displaying the final month of its exhibition “The Majors,” including three original works by Michael Gibbons. Prints of his work will also be available in the museum’s gift shop, where all proceeds go to supporting the museum’s mission to promote the arts in the Yaquina region. The Schoolhouse Exhibit Space is located at 151 N.E. Alder St., and is open noon to 4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.
For more information, go to www.yaquinarivermuseumofart.org.
Across the street is the Signature Gallery of Michael Gibbons, featuring original works of art by the late artist.
On display is “Prelude to Spring,” a painting depicting the last of winter’s influence with the bare branches of the brush along the Yaquina river bank with the first beginnings of spring with the recent blooms of the distinctive cherry trees of Toledo. The gallery is at 140 N.E. Alder St. and open noon to 4 p.m. through First Weekend.
ART Toledo will be featuring artists Daniel Toledo and Kim Bush at its phantom gallery, located at 355 N. Main Str. Toledo is an accomplished exotic wildlife painter as well as sculptor and jeweler.
“My artistic works are the result of over four decades worth of devoted study, learning every anatomical facet of the subject wildlife” he said. “My dedication to originality and an uncompromising ideal has resulted in these highly valued creations, expressive products of imagination to be collected now and preserved for future generations.”
Just down the street, Crow’s Nest Gallery & Studio features the works of more than 15 artists in a variety of different mediums, including pieces by Carol Connett, a recent addition to the collective.
“I enjoy creating possible realities, working from my own personal mythology” she said. “I create worlds, morphing creatures, and the rules of nature. Cooperation between species is a reoccurring theme; no animal or spirit is forced to work with humans.”
Other artists in the gallery are gallery founder Janet Runger, found art assemblage; Veta Bakhtina, storybook oils; Alice Haga, fused glass; Sylvia Hosie, photography; Paula Teplitz, sculptural jellyfish mobiles; Jeff Gibford, digitally manipulated photographs; Tish Epperson, watercolors; Val Bolen, ceramics; and Susan Jones, woven fiber jellyfish. Crow’s Nest Gallery & Studio is at 305 N. Main St., open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.
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