Fort Bragg Joins Mendocino As Coastal Art Mecca

Fort Bragg is taking its place along side Mendocino as an art colony with new galleries, a newly-published book of local artists and an increasing number of monthly “First Friday” art exhibit openings.

Much of the art is displayed right on Main Street in two artist coops, Edgewater and North Coast Artists. Among popular gallery artists is Fort Bragg Ceramist/Painter Meg Courtney, who studied art at the College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland and U.C. Berkeley and the Academia dei Belli Arte in Florence, Italy.

(Fort Bragg ceramicist/painter Meg Courtney)

When not creating art or working at Edgewater Gallery, Courtney’s other activities include serving on the Fort Bragg City Council -- an example of how art is invading every facet of life in this former lumber town.

(A colorful example of the work of ceramicist/painter Courtney)

Across the street in the City’s historic Company Store Building is the Mendocino Coast Photographer Guild and Gallery, a big new photo art display featuring the area’s top photographers, including internationally known birder and master wildlife photographer Ron LeValley.

Baby Boomers Drawn to Art

While the rural Mendocino Coast has been a Mecca for artists to live and work since the late 50’s when Bill Zacha created the Mendocino Art Center, many of the new crop of artists are baby boomers, their creative burst coming after successful business or professional careers.

(Fort Bragg nature photographer Bill Rohr, M.D.)

Among them are nature photographer Bill Rohr, M.D., a nationally acclaimed and still practicing orthopedic surgeon, and former elementary school teacher Janice Porter, who started painting watercolors for the first time in 1998. The work of both newbie artists is eye-catching and popular among tourists and locals. Porter’s style and colors have made her work one of the top sellers in many area galleries, including Fort Bragg’s Edgewater.

New Breed of Artist
Among this new breed of Fort Bragg photo-artist is Larry Wagner, an engineering graduate from Stanford who spent 27 years with Procter & Gamble, the last ten years as a Director of Engineering working with all the major product divisions of P&G.

He is the creative talent behind the newly-published (late 2007) “Artists of the Mendocino Coast,” a 160-page book featuring 77 artists and samples of their work. The book includes 20 Fort Bragg artists.

Wagner’s book includes lifelong artists, like master glass blower Buster Dyer, whose stunning glass jelly fish illuminate the windows of his Glass Fire Gallery in south Fort Bragg and Fort Bragg painter/potter Christine Schomer, who combines her studies of Eastern papermaking and graphic design to create stunning designs for her paintings and pottery.