PORT ANGELES — Regie Saxerud’s reward comes from passers-by.
Last Sunday, a whole family stopped to gaze up at the wall Saxerud had painted. They were among the many who have, in recent weeks, paused to look, then touch, her red and black art on either side of the Studio Bob doorway.
“That puts the biggest smile on my face,” Saxerud said.
She has one more coat of varnish to add, but essentially her work, some
600 hours of it, is done. Saxerud has transformed the entrance to Studio Bob, the downtown art gallery and event space that many people could not seem to find.
It’s at 118½ E. Front St.; has been for nearly nine years now. The place hosts art parties on the second Saturday of the month, concerts and the weekly Drink and Draw gathering in the adjacent Loom lounge.
But too many would-be attendees didn’t see the Studio Bob sign, up high above the sidewalk.
Owner Bob Stokes said he’s not permitted to put up a bigger placard.
“We’ve used up our allotment for square footage,” being upstairs from Sound Bikes & Kayaks, which has its sign at street level.
Last spring, Stokes and his partner Cindy Elstrom thought: We’ve got to do something.
Then that something arrived.
Saxerud, a multi-media artist, wanted to infuse the entrance with an eye-catching design. She showed Stokes her drawing in May and got the go-ahead.
“She’s a great artist,” for one thing, said Stokes. As for her painting, “I can’t believe the attention it gets.”
Though Stokes helped out with supplies — acrylic paint on marine-grade plywood — Saxerud did not collect a fee.
But, said the artist, “I didn’t give it to Bob. I did it for the town . . . It’s so important that we get people involved in the arts. This is my way to bring attention to what’s happening here.”
The painting, she added, reflects the world of theater and performing arts, with two figures standing tall and curvy. They’re Greek tragedy and comedy, Saxerud said. Above their heads shine a sun and stars.
Saxerud, 55, finds Port Angeles to be a place where she can spread her artistic wings. She went on a long road trip around her 50th birthday and landed here. An artist since age 5, she did not go to art school.
“I never listen to anyone who says ‘You can’t do that.’ When I want to learn how to do something, I go to the library,” she said.
Saxerud is a painter who also works in sculptural media, from concrete to glass mosaic. She attends Drink and Draw, the free artists’ gathering at 7 p.m. each Thursday at The Loom. It’s an all-ages event, with soft drinks as well as beer and wine, and guest models every week.
Saxerud has also been the featured artist at Second Friday Art Rock, the monthly event blending on-site visual art and live music at Bar N9ne, 229 W. First St. The next 2FAR, as it’s known, is set for Oct. 10.
As for Studio Bob, the gallery will throw another art party Saturday evening, Oct. 11, with art made out of marine debris as part of the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival going on Oct. 10-12 in downtown Port Angeles (www.CrabFestival.org).
Saxerud has three grown children, two of whom are artists living in Port Angeles: Tully Saxerud and his sister Reyden, who works at Country Aire Natural Foods.
She raised them after becoming a widow at age 27. Her husband, John Saxerud, was an Island County Sheriff’s Deputy shot and killed by a drunken driver he had just arrested.
“Art,” says Regie Saxerud, “is what makes this world livable.”
