Crooked Mile Gallery

Welcome to Crooked Mile Gallery, a haven for artistic expression and a comfortable space to relax and reflect.

Here, everyone is a friend. 

There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile,

he found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;

he bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,

and they all live together in a little crooked house.

Like the nursery rhyme, Crooked Mile Gallery recognizes and embraces a road that meanders less and twists more.

Of the many talented artists on display in the gallery, Paul Kay is one.  Also the co-owner, designer, and builder of Phoenix Industrial Studios – a site that practices sustainability through water recapture, energy efficient design, and material reuse – Paul crafted many of the foundations of Crooked Mile Gallery by incorporating the burned, broken and bent materials from the ruins of the onsite maintenance shop, destroyed by the Almeda fire.

The charred timbers were milled and used as the trim of the window jambs and in the crafting of the jewelry cases (built by Morgan Pierce).  Burnt steel from the shop roof clads the “Houdini Boxes” and forms panels of the mezzanine privacy screens.  Shattered glass, once the shop window, has rematerialized as the lenses of the sconce after being mined from the rubble.  In keeping with the original sustainable goals, reclaimed lumber from the deconstruction of the buildings previously on the site – which survived the fire – is the material crafting the window jambs, door casing, privacy screens, and sconce frame. 

Crooked Mile Gallery recognizes the resilience of a community ravaged by wildfire and shows how once fragmented, burned objects can become beautifully useful and whole again.  Some of these newly formed treasures now call this crooked house home.

Alison Fairbanks, owner