The former Peak Sports storefront will have a different type of inventory this holiday season. TEAL Artist Cooperative will open its seasonal gallery on October 30th at 207 NW Second St in downtown, showing off and selling work from 24 regional artists through December 28th.
(Photo: courtesy/TEAL Artist Cooperative)
It’s been a longstanding tradition for the co-op. Every October, TEAL’s artists turn a vacant storefront into a temporary gallery for the holiday season.
According to a press release provided by participating artist Ute Vergin, the gallery will offer fiber, leather, glass, wood, mixed media, and metal work, along with ceramics, jewelry, and paintings.
The artists who will have work on display will be the ones staffing the store, giving visitors a chance to meet the people behind the art.
TEAL’s history stretches back more than thirty years. According to the cooperative, potter Ken Pate invited Corvallis jewelry artists Marti and Gary Spehar to join him in opening a gallery. The Spehars had been selling jewelry at Oregon festivals from the back of their Volkswagen van. It began as a way for local artists to sell indoors during the cold, rainy months, and eventually it turned into an annual holiday gallery.
Like most cooperatives, TEAL remains a shared undertaking. Its membership requirements call for artists to pass a jury review, serve on committees, and work gallery shifts during the holiday season.
(Photo: courtesy/TEAL Artist Cooperative)
Nat Stein is one of the artists participating. He traded computer animation for woodworking after moving to Oregon in 2012. Classes intended to help him renovate his house sparked increasingly ambitious projects and eventually his business, Oak & Iron. He now makes furniture, knives, and bowls, and draws on his animation skills to design pieces built to last.
Another artist has an interesting story. Deb Curtis began making baskets in 1982 while living in Virginia, where she learned to weave an Appalachian egg basket. After moving to the Pacific Northwest, she incorporated cedar bark and materials from her yard. Her work blends traditional basketry with tapestry weaving, beading, and stitching.
Michael Mills turns old signs, discarded containers, and rusty scrap metal into dimensional collages. A former freelance graphic designer who created corporate and brand identities, he now gives commercial imagery another life, using weathered lettering, rust, and faded colors as part of his artistic palette.
TEAL donates a portion of its annual gallery proceeds to art education, with Muddy Creek Charter School in Corvallis selected as this year’s recipient.
More information can be found at tealartistcoop.com.
This article was written by K. Hewlitt at The Corvallis Inquirer. Feel free to send us your stories or articles to publish at: editor@corvallisnow.com
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