New space sparks renaissance for local artist

SANDPOINT - Her studio is a light-bathed sanctuary, furnished with all the necessary ingredients for a free spirit like Gail Lyster to fly.

Lyster, best known for her tile art, was the featured artist for the 2003 Festival at Sandpoint poster. Her greater body of work, however, literally covers the walls, floors and entryways of homes in Bonner County and far beyond. But something happened when she moved her creative space from a downtown loft to the new studio behind her home - Gail Lyster looked up from the tiles she had been painting and began to see art in the whole world around her.

"When I was downtown, I was just 'tile girl,'" she said. "Now I'm experimenting with everything - rocks, sticks, leaves - I'm even playing with painting on photographs."

Lyster recently was chosen to be the 2008 artist for the Angels Over Sandpoint Christmas Card. The image she selected began as a photograph taken from the top of Eagen Mountain, with the Monarchs in the background and a smattering of islands dotting the waters of Lake Pend Oreille like rocks dropped randomly into a very large pond.

As she began to paint over the summerscape, her vision heralded a change of season and snowflakes began to fall from the tip of the paintbrush. The geography remained the same, but each stroke transformed the hillsides from verdant green to frosty white.

"It just turned into a winter scene as I went along," Lyster explained. "It was fun to warp out like that and still know that every one of those land masses in the picture really exists."

This is the third year for the Angel cards, which raised about $4,000 on the first outing using a generic "stock" image and began incorporating the work of local artists last season by featuring a winter scene by Clark Fork photographer Sarah Hazel, which pulled in more than $5,000 in sales.

Several images - all of them photographically reproduced and manipulated in advance by local photographer Brenda Evans - were considered for this year's holiday fundraising card, with Lyster's snow scene getting the final nod.

The cards are priced at $10 each and include an insert describing how the purchase helps the charitable organization take care of local families who are toughing it out during the winter. When someone's home burns down or a family winds up in a camper with no heat, the Angels swoop in with temporary housing, money for meals and assistance with transportation and medical costs.

"Instead of giving a $10 gift of candies or a candle just to have something to give someone, these cards are a gift that keeps on giving," Lyster said. "Right now, it's pretty frightening with what's happening to the economy, so we're glad to be a part of helping people."

The Christmas card fundraiser is one of several the Angels take on every year. Their biggest event happens right before the beginning of school, with the distribution of backpacks and school supplies for children in lower-income families across Bonner County. This year, the group raised $35,000 for 950 backpacks full of things like crayons, pencils and paper.

The push to help kids get ready for winter also includes a shoe voucher program in cooperation with Payless Shoe Source, which provides winter shoes and boots for children whose families can't otherwise afford them.

The 2008 Christmas Card - aptly titled "Winter Wonderland" - was created in Lyster's new studio as part of an explosion of creativity that began almost as soon as she made the move. She has stationed a pair of old hospital gurneys to serve as worktables so she can readjust them and follow the light as it glides in a slow-motion tango from the bank of windows and across the studio floor as the day progresses.

The artist dances, too, music cranked on as she moves from one project to the next with unbridled energy. Lyster had been saddled by a legacy of excellence in her tile art, but now sees no boundaries in her creative life. She climbs inside old photographs to meet the inhabitants up close by sweeping her brush across them, then moves across the studio to recreate a day on the lake by painting landscapes on rocks she found along each of the beaches ringing a favorite island.

"I feel like my creative life has gotten bigger," Lyster said. "I'm going completely wild with whatever inspires me and I'm able to soar.

"I no longer go to work because I have to," the artist added. "I go out to my studio because it calls me."

Angels Over Sandpoint Christmas Cards may be purchased for $10 each by writing to: Angels Over Sandpoint, 206 N. Fourth Ave. #163, Sandpoint, ID, 83864 or e-mailing: angelcards@nctv.com. For information: 263-9554.