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BEAD
BOXING
Gayle H. Seely’s creations on
display during Seaside Art
Walk kick-off March 3
By EVE MARX
FOR COAST WEEKEND
‘I
love seeing people become so involved
in my boxes,” Gayle H. Seely said.
The artist’s unique creations will be
on display at Fairweather House & Gallery’s
Seaside Art Walk kick-off at the “Fresh
Greens” opening reception 5 to 7 p.m. Satur-
day, March 3.
Her ancient methods of mosaic and bead-
ing combined with fresh, modern energy and
emotions create intricate, colorful boxes.
Seely, an Oregon native, moved to the
North Coast from Trinidad, California, in
1984. She became familiar with the area
after her parents moved to Gearhart in 1980.
On a sleepy Monday morning at the Pa-
cific Way Bakery in Gearhart, Seely said that
as a child she spent a lot of time examining
and studying the natural mosaic of river
rock in Fall River. After graduating from the
University of Oregon with a degree in fine
art, she moved to San Francisco to take a job
in an architectural design firm.
“It was the late ’70s. I lived in the Mari-
na,” Seely said. “I fed my interest in fine art
going to galleries and museums. I walked
all over the city, I read Ayn Rand, I took day
trips to Santa Cruz,” she laughed. To offset
the artistic constrictions of her day job, she
enrolled at Humboldt State College as a
post-baccalaureate “unclassified,” which
meant she could take any art class she liked.
“There was a senior-year seminar where
I was thrown in with the messy artists, and I
realized I wanted to feel that,” Seely said.
Boxes and beads
She decided to pay off her school loan
and car loan, and eventually quit her job in
San Francisco to move to Trinidad and make
art. To support herself, she took a job wait-
ing tables at a place called The Eatery.
“When I wasn’t working, I drew. I was
drawn to seascapes,” Seely said. “I’ve al-
ways loved the beach.”
EVE MARX PHOTO
Artist Gayle H. Seely
COURTESY DENISE FAIRWEATHER GALLERY
COURTESY FAIRWEATHER HOUSE AND GALLERY
“Artist Habitat” by Gayle H. Seely
“Welcome,” a beaded work-in-progress by Gayle H. Seely
One day she came across the work of
Zemula Fleming, a painter, sculpture and
mixed-media artist who works in beaded
mosaic.
“She was an inspiration to me,” Seely
said. “I bought nine of her pieces.”
All along she had been collecting wooden
boxes and colored beads for which she now
had a purpose.
“A lady in Newport showed me some
techniques on adhering the beads to the
boxes,” she said. “I visited Alaska, where I
learned how to weave cedar baskets. I began
doing things with wire and beads.”
Not long after, Seely had an epiphany: She
wanted to focus exclusively on bead boxes, a
direction she’s taken for several years.
“The boxes are surprisingly durable,”
Seeley said. “I test them out on my 3-year-
old niece.” All the same, she said, people
tend not to keep things in them as much as
collect them and regard them as talismans.
“I use a lot of the color green,” Seely
said. “I like colors found in nature.”
Seely has been represented by the Fair-
weather Gallery since 2015. She and her
husband live in Seaside, where she also has
a studio. When she isn’t working, she enjoys
walking and spending time with her beauti-
ful dog, Liberty Belle.
“She is a trained pheasant hunter,” Seely
said. It’s easy to imagine one day how feath-
ers may find their way into Seely’s enchant-
ing, imaginative work.
Fairweather House & Gallery is located
at 612 Broadway St. in Seaside. CW