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The Toy Show

Garde Rail Gallery presents "The Toy Show", the first themed show at the gallery. Owners Karen Light and Marcus Pina asked a number of the self-taught artists on their roster to create "toys". The toys should be actual toy-like objects, able to be "played" with, kinetic pieces that call for interaction. The results range from toy ships, blocks, and cars, to bone dolls and B.B. games.

Many years ago, Anne Grgich created toy blocks for her child Jasper to play with. Upon visits with Annie at her home, we had always been attracted to her painted toy blocks. We asked her about painting some and the show grew from there.

John Taylor creates beautiful ships from found objects. We thought it would be wonderful to have some toy ships. Fortunately, so did John, with spectacular results.

Kentucky woodcarver LaVon Williams carved some wonderful cars, while Alabama folk artist Buddy Snipes created more of his bone dolls and popular tin cutouts. Florida artist Ruby C. Williams responded with her had painted rag dolls, while fellow Floridian Jerry Coker sculpted a trio of scrap metal animals. Snohomish artist Mark O'Malley painted on puzzles, B.B. games, and tops, and Aberdeen's Stephen Powers will contribute toy rockets and UFO's.

Toy Show