Gerry Matthews, creator and curator of
the Museum of Un-Natural History |
WALLA WALLA, WASHINGTON—
[GETTING THERE][HELPFUL
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Until a decade ago, wheat fields stretched in
all directions from Walla Walla, Washington. These days, the
amber waves still ripple, but among them are a growing number
of grape vines.
"There are vineyards everywhere you go now,"
says Patti Cobb, a longtime Walla Walla resident. "It's
big industry."
As the tasting room signs proliferated along
Willamette Valley roadsides, few people had any idea that
another phenomenon was growing right in the heart of Walla
Walla itself. In an upstairs gallery behind a black door,
a creative spirit was at work. The remarkable result is now
open by appointment: The Museum of Un-Natural History.
"If you put enough stuff on a wall,
it looks good:" The artist with "Chaos is
All" |
Gerry Matthews, the museum's creator and curator,
came to southwestern Washington almost by chance. After a
career in New York as a Broadway singer and dancer, a television
actor, and a nightclub performer, he and his wife Pat headed
to the Pacific Northwest in search of a place to put down
fresh roots.
"I liked Walla Walla, and there
was nobody here that I knew," says Matthews, although
plenty of folks might easily have recognized his voice. He
has provided the voice for Sugar Bear, Post's animated cereal
mascot, since 1962. A man with multiple muses, Matthews has
also written stories, novels, children's books, plays, television
scripts, and screenplays.
Next>A
Museum is Born
Page 1|2
"Fool" reflects
the artist's multi-faceted career as an actor, singer,
dancer, writer, husband, and father
|
