Abrams is closing N.F. gallery

By Volney Dunavan / Special To Sierra Star

(Updated: Thursday, October 09, 2008, 6:47 PM)

"Marcia and I have had to make a momentous decision," begins the e-mail of Saturday, Sept. 27. That was when North Fork Community Art Gallery owner Paul Henry Abram announced the closure of the young gallery. The notice went out to art enthusiasts not only to Eastern Madera County, but but throughout the nation.

"In the first two days, I heard from 34 people as a response to the e-mail," Abram said. Abram will sell all gallery work at a 25 percent off price during October, waiving gallery fees during the final month.

The small enterprise in the conference room at the North Fork Community Development Council building on the old mill site began with a gala reception in the spring of 2007.

During its two open seasons, visitors have signed in from Texas and Wisconsin; Loveland, Ohio, Edmunds, Wash.; Melrose, Nipomo and Hollywood, Fla.; Grants Pass, Portland and Roseville, Ore.; St Louis, Mo. and even Berlin. And that doesn't count the many California cities listed in the visitors register.

Abram said the closure is due to dwindling sales, but more importantly, he is just plain tired following two years of handling all the promotion and scheduling for the small business.

His wife, Marcia, a part-time registered nurse at Valley Children's Hospital, handles the bookkeeping. Abram said they opened the gallery never expecting a profit. We wanted "to bring additional beauty to North Fork." The gallery never turned a profit, save for the satisfaction of there being a gallery.

Abram sold his first photograph at age 28, an impressionistic picture of a lit Christmas tree. He was paid a whopping $25 for the piece in Big Bear Lake. Since then, his artistic endeavors have included teaching photography in California and Oregon. He also has had galleries from Big Bear Lake in the south to several places in Oregon, and is a founding member of the Siskou Artworks co-op.

The Abrams moved to North Fork from Hanford in 2000. He retired from 37 years of the practice of law in 2004, often in defense of workers and their rights. In 1970 he represented the International Longshore and Warehouseman's Union in an action resulting from a bitter strike in the Mojave community of Trona. Abram is still working on his novel about that strike, "Trona, Bloody Trona."

He and Marcia frequently go on the road visiting fishing places and shops both near and far. Many of his photographs have come from those treks. He has been a professional photographer as long as he practiced law. He is hoping some day to do a show about his favorite subject -- fish. For several years he wrote the fishing column for the Sierra Star.

His art form is evolving as cameras, paper and printers are getting better. "I am excited again about black and white" he said, referring to a style he is known for. It gives the impression of the lithograph plates he saw his father carve at nights when he was a boy. He also takes many fish pictures while following his favorite pastime, often underwater.

"Art is the first thing to go when the economy turns down," said watercolorist Dot Morris, a gallery member from the start. That sentiment was echoed by Dr. Pamela Beecher, executive director of the Madera County Arts Council. "You can live without a painting but not without gas and food," she said. Beecher said the drop began about February of this year.

Beecher cited not only gas prices and the economy but also the location of the gallery as being a contributing factor to its closing.

"As a fellow gallery owner, I do know how incredibly difficult it is to make it work. I too have seen a serious drop," artist Aileen R. Imperatrice of Ashtree Studios in Fresno said in an e-mail. .

In an e-mail response to Abram's announcement, North Fork Community Development Council Vice President Sandy Chaille said, "The gallery has been a bright spot in this little town and I was hopeful that it could survive and continue to be a 'mountain jewel' and a part of the development of the mill site."

North Fork CDC Treasurer Kirsten Englund wrote about an "awesome collection of talent" in the gallery register.

The gallery will be open this coming weekend as No. 61 of the Sierra Art Trails. Featured artist on Saturday will be watercolorist Phyllis Overstreet, and Abram will be featured on Sunday. Art Trails hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The gallery will offer free refreshments.

The official closing will be Sunday, Oct. 26 when the hours will be 11 to 5 with hors d'oeuvres and libations from 3 to 5.