By Lacie Morrison
lmorrison@mineralwellsindex.com
THURBER – Looking to add a few artistic touches to the home? A new business in the tiny community of Thurber is hoping to fill that need by selling artwork for North Central Texas artists that hang on the wall, the back of your couch or even around your neck.
Santo resident Jackie Smith said he believes there will be growth in the southern part of Palo Pinto County.
“I think it will be really taking off in the next 10 years,” he projected.
In anticipation of that growth and to offer something to Interstate 20 travelers who stop in Thurber for a meal, Smith recently opened up an art gallery called Art 4 U. The gallery is located in the south end of the same brick building as The Smokestack.
“I’ve been interested in art all my life,” said Smith, who currently works as a landscaper though has a passion for sculpting. Examples of his sandstone sculptures sit on shelves in the gallery.
The open gallery features paintings, prints and photographs while steel sculptures of trees, woven glass sculptures and metal clocks adorned with bicycle chains rest on shelving.
Smith explained that with his landscape business, he sees the ground as simply a larger canvas to work with.
“It’s a bigger piece of art they get to walk through,” he noted. “I always try to do something unique.”
It was through his landscaping business that he began to make contact with area artists interested in displaying their artwork.
“We have over 20 artists from Fort Worth to Abilene,” Smith said. “We have original prints, sculptures, woodworks, modern, mixed … Because we’re working off the traffic, we have a wide range of prices.”
Since the gallery’s initial opening shortly before Christmas, Smith noted, “We’ve had a lot of traffic coming in. We get a pretty steady flow.”
One local artist, Bonnie Dickson, has her paintings hanging on the gallery walls and calls herself “a co-worker” at the shop.
Dickson apparently enjoys showing the different types of art the shop offers, pointing out hand painted brooms and spreading out a quilt made of old blue jeans.
“It’s a whole variety of things,” she said of the shop’s contents as she pointed out jars of spicy pickles. Remembering a customer from Wyoming, Dickson added that they’ve gotten quite a few people stopping in who aren’t from the area.
“We get quite a few people who see the sign at lunch,” she noted.
