Gallery opens with shoe show
The Dot will be 'loud and small'
The art gallery that Gary Nisbet plans to open today in Hingham Square, he said, will not be your quiet, staid, eye-rolling sort of place. Instead, it will be "loud and small," the artist said. "We're all about art tolerance -- getting comfortable with it."
The gallery -- to be called "Dot" -- also will be interactive, with exhibitions and workshops.
Dot will feature Nisbet's preferred art form, collage, which Nisbet considers "green" art -- recycling in its purest form.
"I call it compost -- stuff that people throw away that finds a secondary life as art."
The Nisbet family -- Gary, his wife, and their two children -- moved to Hingham from Seattle three years ago. In that short time, he has made a name for himself around Hingham, first as the architect of last fall's "Art Walk," and then as the originator of the Plymouth River Elementary School's first "Art-a-Palooza."
Earning a living as an artist since the late 1980s with galleries throughout the country featuring his work, Nisbet always had a dream to open his own gallery -- a combination workshop and showcase -- where he could collaborate with other artists as well as children and adults.
It was his friend, Max Grover, in town for Hingham's Art-a-Palooza event, who nudged Gary toward his dream.
"Max said, 'This is where you do it; this is the perfect town,' " Nisbet said. Grover, an accomplished children's book illustrator, had recently opened his own gallery in Port Townsend, Wash., and was enjoying the freedoms of owning and running his own space.
So Nisbet went ahead and followed suit.
The goal of the Dot gallery workshops, which will be taught by Nisbet and are to start this month, will be to create "nontraditional art" in a welcoming atmosphere. He will guide students through the process of creating their own work -- exposing them to various techniques, including metallic leaf application, crackle finishes, and gel reverse transfer.
The gallery also will feature rotating works from fellow artists -- Kenna Moser, David
Why combine teaching and exhibition in the same venue? "I realized at the end of each teaching job that I was energized by the uninhibited energy that students get," Nisbet said. "It made me become more excited about my own work."
Nisbet has taught workshops in mixed-media collage for more than 15 years at Sun Valley Center for the Arts, UCLA, the University of Washington, several children's museums, and at the Chico Women's prison in California. His work continues to show around the region. (The Clark Gallery in Lincoln will be featuring an exhibition of his work in October.)
Nisbet's gallery will feature a new collection of his work, titled "Shoe Sale," to coincide with Hingham's annual Summer Fest Sidewalk Sales.
Upcoming exhibits will include "The Fall Classic," a merging of baseball and art, followed in November by "Family Connect," a multigenerational show that will feature the work of some local artists whose parents made a name for themselves in the '50s and '60s.
"It seemed to me, like the late fall, Thanksgiving, when families seem to gather, was a good time for this," Nisbet said.
And how did Nisbet come up with the name, Dot, for his gallery?
"I was giving a slide presentation at the Seattle Art Museum and, during the Q & A segment, someone asked, 'Why do so many of your pieces have a recurring theme of dots?' " I was stumped; I hadn't noticed or known why I included this element.
"A couple of years later, I stumbled across a picture of my grandmother," he said. "She was wearing a bold, polka-dotted dress, I was clutching her hand, and something clicked. . . . She always wore polka dots. . . . As a kid, I must have enjoyed this and have always included it in my work."
Dot Gallery is at 112 North St. in Hingham. For information on workshops and exhibits, visit garynisbet.com or send an e-mail to dotgallery@comcast.net. 
