Making A Difference: An Occasional Series Profiling North Idaho’S Community Leaders Keeping Art Spirit Alive Steve Gibbs Has Created An Atmosphere That Attracts Many Artists From Throughout The Region

There’s no sales talk at Coeur d’Alene’s tiny Art Spirit Gallery, but everything - from wood sculptures to ceramic vases to lush oil paintings - is for sale.

And it sells, because manager Steve Gibbs attracts buyers as well as the region’s most acclaimed artists.

“He has such high integrity. I absolutely trust the guy,” says George Carlson, a Harrison-based painter and bronze sculptor. His work has graced the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

“He’s so egoless and willing to set aside his own art career to get involved in keeping art spirit alive in the whole community.”

Gibbs’s low-key approach has raised Coeur d’Alene’s interest in fine art, encouraged artists to work together and taken the art process out of studios and into the public.

He’s the energy behind Art in the Making, a quarterly gathering of working artists in the Coeur d’Alene Plaza Shops. More than a dozen artists bring paints and pencils, straddle drawing horses that face posing models and work while shoppers watch.

“There’s nothing like this in Spokane,” says Mickey Mank, a Spokane sculptor who’s a regular at Art in the Making. “This is fun, and it makes art more human.”

Which is Gibbs’s objective. “Retail is not my intent,” he says. “My intent is purely to promote art. The more exposure you have, the more interest grows.”

So Gibbs spreads the art he promotes everywhere he goes. An impressionistic abstract by Lewiston artist Dale Tucker hangs on Gibbs’ living room wall along with two Stan Miller watercolor studies, a Mel McCuddin painting of a giant fish, an oil abstract by Robert Gilmore and an impressionist country road scene by Carolyn Trueblood - artists he’s exhibited at his gallery.

The rest of his small home exhibits a ceramic sculpture by Terry Gieber, chairman of Gonzaga University’s art department, a Harold Balazs tar and glue painting, Spirit Lake artist Patsey Parson’s striking oil of a bald man, Gibbs’ own painting of a standing nude, and more and more and more.

Gibbs, 48, studied engineering and architecture, but found himself drawn to artistic renderings. He finished Montana State University’s graphic design program and opened his own one-man studio in Billings.

Creating business logos, brochures and ads is high-pressure work, but Gibbs flourished. By the time he sold the company after 15 years, he had nine employees.

He stayed in graphic design for another five years, working for a growing computer company in Southern California. Love and a healthy savings account changed his direction in 1992.

He quit work, threw on a backpack and took off around the world for 16 months with Leah Byrd, a Coeur d’Alene medical technician.

They settled in Coeur d’Alene in 1994, and Gibbs turned his attention to the fine arts. He’d intended to pursue claywork, but his backyard studio was too small.

“I thought, `Why not paint instead?”’ he says.

It was a lucky decision that led Gibbs to artist John Thamm. Thamm offered painting lessons from his Coeur d’Alene studio. He was the courtroom sketch artist in the Randy Weaver and Branch Davidian survivor trials.

Thamm warmed to ponytailed Gibbs and asked him if he’d run a gallery on the main floor of his downtown house. Dropping Thamm’s name gave Gibbs immediate credibility among a crowd of regional artists.

Gibbs remodeled and chose a name, Art Spirit, after a 1923 book by Robert Henri that champions the arts. Art Spirit exhibits original work by regional artists only.

The house is small, but windows, creamy walls and a wood floor give it warmth and light. Gibbs gives it soul.

“He feels pretty strongly about it,” says Byrd, his wife. “He’s so involved in the community and trying to put art projects forward that he doesn’t have much time for his own art.”

Gibbs’ time disappeared as the gallery’s reputation grew and he began Art in the Making. He’s organized nine of the public studio sessions.

He flits from Citizens Council on the Arts meetings to the Coeur d’Alene Business Association, then to the city’s art commission.

“All these organizations - they never talk to each other. I try to be as much of a conduit as I can for what’s happening artwise in town.”

Somehow, the oil still lifes and clay heads are multiplying in his studio. The Idaho Commission on the Arts gave him $1,000 to study with Carlson this year.

Gibbs rises at 5:15 a.m. to paint for a few hours and study his intricate color charts before the gallery pulls him away. Sales there earned him $5,000 last year - his only earnings.

“I really want to focus on painting, but I see a real benefit at the gallery,” he says. “I wish there were 36-hour days.”

Two sidebars appeared with the story: 1. DETAILS Exhibit

A monthlong exhibit of the relief oil paintings and wood carvings of Spokane artist Robert Grimes opened at the Art Spirit Gallery Friday.

Grimes combines paint and sculpture, pushing clay and plaster casts into fiberglass and other materials.

The gallery also is exhibiting works by Steve Adams, George Carlson, Harold Balazs, Don Ealy, Gina Freuen, Terry Gieber, Robert Gilmore, Mel McCuddin and Genevra Sloan.

Art Spirit, 908 Sherman Ave., is open Tuesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. For information, cal 765-6006.

2. HAVE ANY IDEAS?

We’re looking for people to profile who are making a difference in your community. If you have a suggestion for someone to profile, contact Cynthia Taggart at The Idaho Spokesman-Review at 608 Northwest Blvd. Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814, or by fax at 765-7149 or by e-mail at cynthiat@spokesman.com.