About CREEKSIDE

CREEKSIDE is a Virtual Art Gallery originating on wooded acreage next to an idyllic meandering stream. Real hummingbirds, herons and kingfishers pass by our computers daily. So do a welcomed menagerie of other wildlife including wild deer, racoons, owls, pileated woodpeckers, and flocks of turkeys. Seasonal changes are dramatic.

CREEKSIDE offers for sale a broad range of international artifacts as well as books and catalogs, from classic North American waterfowl decoys to hand carved figural Philippine wood molds for making paper mache to early hand-knotted Finnish bed rugs called ryijys. CREEKSIDE also features virtual art exhibitions and illustrated articles written on a variety of topics. Education is an integral aspect of CREEKSIDE's philosophy.

CREEKSIDE's Linda and Gene Kangas have studied and collected international folk arts and North Americana for four decades. Gene is Professor Emeritus of Art at Cleveland State University and a practicing artist. Linda is an author and retired teacher. Linda and Gene are researchers who have been published both singly and together. They have co-written three important books on duck and fish decoys entitled DECOYS: A North American Survey; DECOYS; and COLLECTOR'S GUIDE TO DECOYS; co-edited WATER BOY: The Art and Life of Reverend Albert Lee Wagner, nationally known folk artist; and Gene authored SACRED STONES a visually diverse international survey focusing on exciting and unusual sculpture stone monuments, throughout time.

Over 150 articles of theirs have appeared in diverse journals on antique and contemporary folk arts, and decorative arts including Antique and the Arts Weekly; [Ohio] Antique Review; Carousel News and Trader; Country Home Antiques Extra; Decoy Magazine; Hunting & Fishing Collectibles Magazine; Folk Art (Museum of American Folk Art publication); THE GAMUT: A Journal of the Arts, Sciences and Professions; Maine Antique Digest; Miniature Collector; New York/Pennsylvania Collector; Dog World; Dogs; and ShowDogs. Together they initiated and hosted FOLK ART CONNECTION, an informal convention held in northeastern Ohio in 1994, and curated over a dozen art exhibitions, most with accompanying illustrated catalogs.

Kangases have been featured lecturers on the arts in a variety of venues including NBC-TV; The Museum of American Folk Art, NYC; the Shelburne Museum, Vermont; university campuses; and have juried numerous contemporary and antique art exhibitions. CREEKSIDE ART GALLERY became a virtual gallery in 2000 coinciding with the new millenium [www.CREEKSIDEArtGallery.com]. CREEKSIDE features antiques, folk art, and Gene's internationally exhibited sculptural wood turnings as well as his focus on photographic digital prints. They are founding partners and directors of Global Selections LLC, an Ohio and Michigan enterprise that imports sculptural folk art.

Linda and Gene have trained German Shepherd Dogs in the TriAthlete Dog Sport of Schutzhund for many years; sharing their lives together in yet another rewarding pursuit.