Lakeport >> Tje Koski was at the ruins of Troy in Turkey when a skinny, tired dog began trailing her tour group. As they walked through the site, whenever they would pause for discussion, the dog laid down, too tired to remain standing. At the end of the tour, he followed the group back to the bus, where all Koski had to give him were a few crackers. She decided to call the dog Troy.
Troy left an impression on her. Though she wished she could have rescued him and taken him home with her, realistically it was impossible. When she left Troy at the ruins, she accepted that he likely wouldn’t live through the winter — so she decided to paint him.
“I wanted him to live on this painting,” Koski said. “I wanted to celebrate his life. He didn’t have much of a life.”
Her image of Troy, along with another 20 animal paintings, are on display at the Main Street Gallery in Lakeport right now. Much like Troy, there is a story behind each painting, though not all are as melancholy as the dog from Turkey. There’s Jack, a lolling-tongued dog Koski spotted on the streets of Fort Bragg. The story behind him is a much simpler one: she thought he looked like a playfulness animal.
Koski paints each of her images, be they animals or people, from candid photos she takes of everyday situations. She never wants to stage images and if she’s snapping pictures of people, she doesn’t want them to know she’s even there. Using the zoom, she clicks the shutter and moves on before her subjects can observe her. “I want to catch a reality of what’s going on,” Koski said. “I don’t want a posed picture.”
Her paintings include two older men sitting on a bench, engaged in an eager conversation. She caught the precise moment when one of the men gestured wildly. Another image features two Muslim girls in Turkey bent over their iPhones. Yet another captures a just-married couple, the bride in her wedding dress and clutching a bouquet.
The images aren’t only about the subjects. The shadows surrounding the animals and people are an important aspect of the pictures. “Sometimes I create a mystery around whatever I’m doing,” Koski said. “I’m telling a story but it’s more than just superficial.”
Before printing it out, Koski will enhance the colors of a photograph on her computer. With her picture in front of her, she grids it, then sketches out the image space by space on her canvas. Finally, she paints it using oils.
Like most artists, Koski has been creating art since she was a child. She would sit with her grandmother, who was a watercolor artist, and paint and draw. She continued with art through middle school and high school, followed by art classes at the City College of New York. Eventually she found herself moving cross-country. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute for two years before pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors in painting.
Throughout her artistic ventures, Koski worked as a registered nurse, spending 27 years at Sutter Lakeside Hospital here in Lakeport. In 2006, she signed up for painting classes at Mendocino College in Ukiah. It flicked a switch of sorts, and Koski threw herself back into her art. She hasn’t stopped painting since.
She’s shown her work at various locations over the years, from Ukiah to Davis to Petaluma. Selling her work is the real challenge. “I think it’s partly hard to sell work because we’re inundated with images,” Koski said. “I don’t think people place the same value on paintings as they did. I don’t think they realize the value of the painting if they don’t see it. They don’t see the brush strokes. Online it’s one step detached from the work.”
It doesn’t help that painters have to bump up the price of their work to compensate for the percentage a gallery collects in a sale. And Koski can’t find it in herself to sell her paintings for less than she feels they’re worth. “I do charge more than most people in Lake County,” she admitted. “I can’t just let some of them go for the market prices. In the Main Street Gallery some of the things they’re practically giving away for free, which is kind of sad.”
But Koski also takes commissions, which are less expensive than purchasing from a gallery. For those interested in having their pets immortalized in paint, prices are negotiable. Koski also prefers to take pictures of the animals herself, since not every picture translates well to a painting. Contact Koski at 275-3352 or visit tjepaintings.com.
Koski’s show at the Main Street Gallery, which is up through the end of June, is the first time she’s displayed her work there in nearly three years. Her paintings are on the walls now, but next Friday, June 3, from 5:30-8 p.m. the gallery will host their First Friday Fling, which features music, appetizers and wine. The Main Street Gallery is located at 325 Main St. in Lakeport.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
