Continued from Page 8
Nancy McCarthy
Metal and wire sculptor Joe Police was commissioned to create a wire sculpture at Breakers Point. Police died before he could begin
the sculpture so his wife, Pat Egan Police, completed it with help from fellow artists.
photos of 111 artists who
spent time in Cannon
Beach. It also describes
61 galleries and studios
— ranging from a gas sta-
tion annex to the White
Bird Gallery, which cele-
brates its 50th anniversary
this year. Colored plates
of some artists’ works are
included as well.
In addition to inter-
viewing artists, Bartl
perused 25 years of local
newspapers, including the
Cannon Beach Gazette
and Seaside Signal. Bartl
included stories about art-
ists and their exhibits in
the book.
The reasons artists
descended on the town
are as diverse as the art-
ists themselves. Painter
and sculptor Jane Horns,
a Portland Museum Art
School student, visited
the area on a field trip in
1964. Horns was stranded
when the school bus left
without her — so she
found a $25 room in Can-
non Beach.
She spent the summer
exhibiting her work in the
M&M Building, home
to numerous art galler-
ies through the years. The
building now houses the
Sesame and Lilies store.
Painter Steve McLeod
rode his motorcycle to
Cannon Beach during
a cross-country tour in
1970 and became one of
Cannon Beach’s beloved
residents until his death
in 2015.
Frank Lackaff visited
his family’s cabin in 1960
and eventually opened the
Sketch Pad Gallery at a
gas station. He later reno-
vated a building on Hem-
lock Street into a home
and gallery, and sold
that to artists Harry and
Hanne Greaver, who still
operate the gallery.
Jim Hannen decided
to open a stained glass
studio in 1975 in Can-
non Beach after a visit. In
those days, an artist could
rent a place large enough
to live and work in for
$50 a month.
“I thought what a cool
thing it would be to live
in Cannon Beach and
have a shop in Cannon
Beach,” said Hannen,
who still lives in the area
and sells his glasswork.
“It was such a different
town. There was some-
thing kind of dreamy
about it.”
Bartl also tells the
story of Joe Police, a
metal sculptor who
became Cannon Beach’s
mayor. Police was com-
missioned to do a sculp-
ture of Sacajawea at the
then-new Breakers Point
condominium devel-
opment. Police died in
1980 before he started the
sculpture. His wife, Pat
Egan Police, completed
it with the community’s
help.
“There was a lot of
creative energy,” Bartl
said. “There were a lot of
reasonably young peo-
ple starting out their lives
and careers, and they had
ideas. They were differ-
ent from 1950s, early
‘60s mainstream ideas,
and it created something.
It wasn’t just in the arts.
There was a revolution
in what kind of town we
should be and how we get
there.”
When Portland State
University opened the
Haystack Summer Arts
Program in 1969, Cannon
Beach became an even
greater draw for artists
and visitors from through-
out the U.S. The program,
which continued for more
than 30 years, impacted
the village economically
and culturally.
But those early days
were special, Bartl
said, because the arts
were “woven into the
community.”
“That was the best
time in Cannon Beach,
there’s no doubt about it.
I think it was a special
time, I really do,” he said.
THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2021 // 9