New Library gets artwork
By Cathy Ingalls, picture by Mark Ylen
Albany Democrat-Herald

The nuns did not teach art in the Catholic schools Cheryl French attended in Seattle, so she never knew she had any artistic talent until she was in her 30s.

French, 51, of Albany is respected enough now in her field that the Albany Arts Commission asked her to paint bright-colored panels or boxes to place around three columns in the Children’s Room at the new Albany Public Library, 2450 14th Ave. S.E. The art will be installed on Tuesday, June 30.

The city budgeted $12,500 for the project, which includes delivery and installation. An Albany ordinance requires that 1 percent of the cost of a public building be dedicated to art. Other art to be placed at the library are an outdoor sculpture and a painting over the main circulation desk.

French used acrylics to paint boxes that are 10 feet tall and total 2 feet wide. Edel Designs Inc. of Albany constructed the boxes.

“The whole idea of the murals is to show the many wonders out there that can capture the imagination of a child,” she said. “There are no better ways to learn about those things than in a library and in books.”

One mural contains ideas that children can discover in books, another shows the exciting places children can explore in books, and the third shows the scientific and natural wonders of the world written about in books, French said.

One column shows the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal, the Himalayas, sailing ships, an astronaut tethered to the Space Station, the Hubble Telescope and because this is Albany, hot air balloons.

French began the paintings in her single-car garage early in March and estimates she has been at it between 500 and 700 hours.

French, a retired labor lawyer, now considers herself a painter and a printmaker. She studied painting at the Seattle Academy of Fine Art and printmaking at the University of Washington Extension Program.

She has exhibited at City Hall and the Albany Art and Air Festival. She works as an artist-in-residence in schools through the Corvallis Art Center.

She lives in Albany with her husband, John Byrne, a retired labor union lawyer, and her 11-year-old daughter, Sean Marie French-Byrne, a Memorial Middle School student, who contributed several ideas for the paintings.

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Nearly all OverDrive/Library2Go WMA Audiobooks in our downloadable collection are now compatible with the iPod®, iPhone™, iPod touch®, and iPod nano®, as well as Zune® and thousands of other portable devices, with a simple upgrade of OverDrive Media Console to version 3.2 on Windows® PCs.

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