MANZANITA SIGN

COMPANY

The Garibaldi gateway sign was a two-year project that included meetings with city representatives, and close work with the City manager to finalize the design and site locations. I managed the overall project which in-cluded subcontracting to a cabinetmaker to build the blanks, a sandblaster, and a local metal sculptor to weld the schooner inserts. I created the design, and did all the hand carving and painting for these two signs. (2009)

Manzanita Sign Company started out in 1975 in

a small woodworking shop in Manzanita behind the Deli.

When I opened my doors, local businesses started asking for signs. So I learned the sign trade on the job.

Having come from a background in the Fine Arts, I was able to bring an artistic sensibility to the designs and began creating what I now call “Art in Public Places” to enhance my clients’ businesses.

I built my sign business by learning the traditional skills and techniques of the sign trade – from creating the design, to scaling it up by eye, and then hand painting the graphics and text.

Along with the skills I developed as a fine woodworker, I have been creating beautiful and enduring signs for over 30 years.

The sign industry has changed radically since those early days and MSC has grown with the times. I now use a computer graphics program for designing and a plotter/cutter to create the text for many of my signs.

But there are times when a special sign calls for the skills of an artist and craftsperson. Hand-carved letters, gold leafing, the painting of a seascape, all demand a skill and eye which I bring to the project.

I have worked with individuals, small businesses, cities, counties, and several non profit organizations and am able to see a project through with professionalism and accountability from initial contact to installation.My assistant, Miro, in the shop.

Manzanita Sign Company

Susan C. Walsh scwstudios.wordpress.com

scwalsh@nehalemtel.net503•368•3366

This directory for the Laneda building was designed to be revised as businesses changed in the building. It was custom colored to blend in with the existing color scheme of the complex. (2005)

A Sampling of Manzanita Sign Company Work

ABOVE: The Salt and Paper sign demonstrates the subtle effect of using airbrush tech-nique on a sign. It has a luminescence that has held up very well. (2006) ... RIGHT: The Wheeler Marina sign is included here as the longest lasting MSC sign still working. It was totally hand painted and scaled using traditional techniques that required a good eye and a steady hand. (1998)

ABOVE: 3. The Nehalem gateway signs (another at the opposite end of town is unpictured) were built in 3 layers which gives a 3-dimensional effect. These sign were originally built and mounted in 2002, and, after 7 years, were restored and upgraded with the addition of long lasting gold leaf on the text. ... LEFT: The Wheeler kiosk was a project that involved the entire merchant com-munity of Wheeler plus the City Council. A model was built of the kiosk to present to the council and the map was painstakingly developed to provide a walking tour of all of the local business locations. It was designed to be readily updated with new businesses and to withstand the severe weather that coastal communities endure. (2003)

After being invited to submit work to the August Cannon

Beach Gallery show Flora & Fauna, Nehalem artist Susan Walsh decided to focus on the north Oregon coast’s more notorious species.

“When you hear the title of the show, you think, ‘Oh, the beautiful flora and fauna of our area,” said Walsh. “I thought, ‘I’m going to do the outsiders.’”

So in February, Walsh set about depicting the unpopular species, the Himalayan blackberry, the starling, the turkey vulture and the bane of gardeners throughout the region – the slug.

“It’s going to be fun,” said Walsh, whose work will appear during an opening from 6 to 8 p.m., Aug. 4. Walsh is a lifelong artist whose work, done in a variety of media over the years, has been exhibited in galleries throughout Oregon. She earned a bachelor’s in fine arts from Knox College in Galesburg, Ill, before doing post graduate work in painting and printmaking at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, art therapy at Marylhurst College and etching at Crown Point Press in San Francisco. Her work has been represented by galleries in Portland. She won first place in painting at the 1989 Portland Art Museum Biennial.

She has also been involved as an artist, juror and curator, with a number of exhibitions on the north Oregon coast.

Her studio and classroom in

Nehalem has served as the site of Walsh’s popular Hero’s Journey – A Course in Painting, from which nearly 100 people graduated.

Today, with Walsh’s acquisition of an electric combination lithograph and etching press, the space serves in part as a printmaking studio and

classroom.“I’ve been

an artist forever, and I’ve painted forever, and I got painted out,” she said. “Printmaking is very, very physical. That’s what I like about it. There’s a lot of routine. It’s like

ritual. You get into this whole dance.”

Even though she studied printmaking – from relief woodcuts to lithography and from silkscreen to

etching – in art school, “I’m learning,” said Walsh, of the etching process. “I’ve gone through reams of paper.”

She used the press to create color etchings of the blackberry and turkey vulture.

The starling and slug pieces, meanwhile, are woodcuts.

Walsh’s slug piece, which features blue, black and green, is a reduction woodcut, which means “the colors are very opaque and the ink dries between each run. They call it a suicide plate because you keep carving the same plate and when you’re done, the plate is destroyed.”

Printmaking, said Walsh, “is perfect for a signmaker. It’s kind of like signage.” Through Manzanita Sign Company, Walsh has created signs for the cities of Nehalem, Rockaway Beach, Garibaldi and Wheeler as well as for a number of local businesses, including The Big Wave Café, San Dune Pub, Wheeler Marina, Salt & Paper, and Finnesterre. Story and photos by LeeAnn Neal, North Coast Citizen, August, 2012.

‘Nehalem artist highlights outsiders in show’

Susan Walsh in the studio with her Wright Press.

This portrait of a turkey vulture was among Walsh’s contributions to

the Flora & Fauna show.

‘A deep, artistic quality along with technical skill’

‘I chose Susan to do my sign at finnesterre because she’s local, very skilled, professional, thorough, prompt, and communicative. She knows about the local conditions and is careful to make a sign that will withstand the challenging conditions around here. Also, I had previous experience with her - she did the signs for us at Vino Manzanita.” — Terri Desaro, owner, finnesterre (Manzanita)

“We hired Susan Walsh to do the sign for our company, Windermere. Manzanita for several important reasons: 1.) We had seen many of her signs around the north Tillamook County area and thought they were very professionally done. Her work showed a deep artistic quality along with technical skill. 2.) We know Susan to be a person of absolute integrity who attends to all details of her client’s needs. 3.) Susan’s work is of the highest possible quality within the client’s budget. 4.) She delivers on time. 5.) We really like Susan. We highly recommend Susan for sign design and completion.”

— Kay Covert, owner Windermere Manzanita