Gig Harbor Gallery Walk Through
My daughter Elise lives in picturesque Gig Harbor, a beautiful waterfront small town about 45 minutes from Seattle, and yesterday I walked through its waterfront business district to see what the locals offer in the form of art.
I will admit that I expected to find what one finds in Annapolis: a couple of galleries and other artsy venues selling watercolors of sailboats, sunsets and seagulls.
And I found some of those, but I also found a surprising, and obviously vibrant, local art scene.
For starters, the galleries all have a 20 page full color publication called Art Gig Harbor that puts anything that we have (actually we don't have anything similar) in the DC area to shame.
The second thing: everyone knows that the Pacific Northwest is the center of the universe for fine art glass. And even in a small town like Gig Harbor, in the smallest of galleries located inside a quaint B&B, one finds terrific selections of glass.
The third thing: Sales. In talking to the various gallerists, it is obvious that around here, people are actively buying art. In fact, since most of the art galleries are withing walking distance of each other, during my Sunday afternoon walkthrough, I kept running into the same four or five sets of people. I asked one couple if they were locals, and they answered that they were, and that they came to the galleries once a month or so to buy a piece of original art.
The first place that I visited was The Harbor Gallery, located on the waterfront and kind of the mix of various artists and framing and gifts that one expects in a touristy town.
Almost across the street there's a really nice B&B and inside as one enters there's a tiny gallery called Fire N Light, and here's the first place where one finds some first rate artwork. This is the Pacific Northwest, and this tiny gallery represents and briskly sells the work of Tim O'Niell, whose "Dory Dreams" series made from gaffer glass was an unexpected find in a genre dominated by vessels. O'Neill is the casting coordinator at nearby Pilchuck.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
That's awesome. I worked at the Peninsula Gateway newspaper there for three years.
It's an AMAZINGLY deep arts town for being so small (but growing); not the Soho urban vibe, just a lot of quality craftsmanshp. Shirley Tomasi, who moved back to Virginia in 2002 was the biggest cause of that resurgence as she headed up the Gig Harbor Key Peninsula Cultural Arts Commission.
There's strong Scandinavian and Croatian influences there too, in what still remains, in part, a fishing town.
What a treat to see Gig Harbor mentioned.
It is also a very rich area with an average income at least double that of its surounding area, so the art they are a buying - and the galleries are a moving there.
How's that second Tacoma Narrows Bridge looking?
The nearby Key Peninsula also offers Christopher Mathie a world-reknowned young potter and Tom Torrens who is much more commercial but still an amazing talent.
I've written articles about both of them.
2 - Temple Stark
sorry for the format error, now fixed