Reimagining the Yellow Brick Road

Many of us still remember the scare we got when the Wicked Witch cackled to Dorothy, “I’ll get you, my pretty.” Or the delighted gasp when we realized Oz — unlike Kansas — was in glorious color. And if someone were to tell us, “I’m off to see the wizard,” we’d be able to finish the song as easily as singing our ABCs.

“Everyone needs a little Oz magic in their daily lives,” says Tinman Artworks gallery owner, Sue Bradley. She’s the face behind Tinman gallery and boutique, as well as the adjacent Ruby Slipper shoe store located on — where else? — Garland Avenue. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the The Wizard of Oz, Bradley and Tinman are hosting the OzVitational art show all this month, opening on Friday.

For the opening (Aug. 7 from 5-9 pm, free, with live music — and OzCream will be served), the Garland area will be transformed into a veritable movie set. During the annual Garland Street Fair the next weekend (Aug.15), a Toto look-alike contest, munchkin hairstyle competition and two yellow brick roads will be featured.

Although this is the first year for OzVitational, this is Garland’s third year embracing all things Oz, borrowing from Bradley’s contagious delight in Dorothy’s travails. Bradley’s face softens as she pages through the original 1900s book series by L. Frank Baum, elaborately illustrated by W.W. Denslow, and later by John R. Neill. Hers are treasured remembrances, enough to inspire a gallery called Tinman whose space — sometimes to the lament of area artists — is shared by books, lots of books.

But it was a book that inspired some of the more than 40 artists participating in the show. “These books,” explains Karen Kaiser of the Oz series, “opened up a whole world to me, as only literature can do.” Kaiser, one of Tinman’s regularly contributing artists and the assistant curator for education at Gonzaga’s Jundt Museum, discovered the transformative power of literature and her local library.

“Because I could only check out two at a time, I had to go to the library several times to read them all,” she says.

Oz books continued to be written well after Baum’s death (such as Dorothy of Oz from 1989, by the author’s great-grandson), but Kaiser’s “Chapter 18” is a tribute to The Magic of Oz, part of the original series. It’s a large charcoal and color pencil drawing that captures the printing quality of 1950s illustration.

Melissa Cole’s lion comes from a different place, elaborately jeweled and regal, a familiar character amongst a menagerie that includes Sondra Barrington’s “Flying Monkeys” bracelet with its miniature movie-stills imprinted on copper charms. An equally hard-to-believe flying monkey demonstrates Dara Harvey’s versatility as a painter and sculptor. And Toto seems not-so-innocent when staring out from a Mel McCuddin canvas or Ric Gendron’s ominous “Mr. Stubbs.”

Some of the work is simply illustrative, which provides familiarity but isn’t as interesting as the pieces where the artists have taken liberties. Painter E.L. Stewart gives us Dorothy enraptured, her body broken into planes of color like the spaces in between the forest branches that envelop her. Tom Quinn borrows from Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World to give us Dorothy yearning for the distant Emerald City.

Margo Casstevens and Kurt Madison created an artwork that typifies the exhibition’s appeal. Their one-of-a-kind pendants — ruby slippers, a yellow brick road, the heart so sought after by Tinman himself — hang from inside their gray weathered box. A knothole in the wood becomes the “O” for Oz and the wood itself is said to be from Dorothy’s Kansas farmhouse. It’s a bit of a stretch, but if you let yourself drift to where childlike wonder lives, you can almost believe.

“OzVitational,” runs Aug. 7-27 at Tinman Artworks, 811 W. Garland Ave., open Monday-Saturday, 10 am-6 pm. Free. Artists reception Friday, Aug. 7, 5-9 pm. Visit tinmanartworks.com or call 325-1500.