Do you remember Colorforms? They were those paper-thin, die-cut vinyl sheet images and shapes that you could stick to a slick cardboard background via static cling and create new scenes by repositioning the cutouts.
Well, the ever-diverse Camano Island artist Jack Gunter has created whimsical paintings based loosely on the Colorform model, turning his original works of art into participatory works of art.
Here’s an example of one of the paintings (see photos): The scene features a peel-away Elwha Dam dam that, when removed, reveals the original spectacular canyon as the artist envisioned it 90 years ago. The revealed scene includes furry critters, returning salmon and whitewater enthusiasts.
Unlike Coloforms, the moveable pieces in Gunter’s paintings aren’t vinyl, but magnets. Here’s how it works: Gunter paints an original scene on a sheet of galvanized steel. Then he paints images or shapes on magnet-backed paper. Voila, a magnet painting that lets you be the artist.
At his Camano Island gallery, Gunter is showing a variety of these paintings in “The Magnet Show.”
Seven of the paintings are empty landscape scenes, from Arlington Airport to Cama Beach, that allow you to populate the pictures with hand-painted images such as flying pigs, sheep, airplanes, trees, eagles and Indian baskets.
The gallery also is selling three of what Gunter says are the world’s first glow-in-the-dark magnet paintings: a moonscape and two undersea scenes where the viewer can manipulate the glowing fish, bottom fauna or sunlit planets and spaceships, in the dark.
Another painting is a 3-foot-square prehistoric landscape with magnet trees and dinosaurs.
Gunter said he was inspired to create these magnet paintings to help his girlfriend sell her home. He painted her house and then a collection of cut-outs of each of her family, plus the dog and a pink car.
“Plus a magnet ‘For Sale’ sign, complete with a magnet Realtor, two magnet homebuyers and a magnet-backed bag of cash with instructions to place the customers at her door with the bag of money on the days she wished for a prospective buyer,” Gunter said.
“Her third-grade-age son, Levi, manipulates the painting every day to suit his moods. Mom is frequently up in the tree.”
Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com
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