PORT ANGELES — Art created to honor the Elwha River restoration has been stolen from a downtown art gallery.
It is ironic that the person who took the artwork titled “Raven” chose that particular painting because it depicts a raven stealing the sun, said Gabrielle Glasen, the artist who created the painting.
Several video cameras at the Landings Art Gallery, 115 E. Railroad Ave., caught images of a woman with long black hair taking the artwork, Glasen said.
The Port Angeles Police Department has the gallery’s security tapes and will be reviewing them, said Officer Trevor Dropp.
The suspect is not known to police, Dropp said.
“Raven,” valued at $300, is part of a collection of six similar paintings created to celebrate the Elwha River dam removals and restoration to coincide with last week’s “Celebrate Elwha!” activities.
The collection, painted on log slices, depicts the animals that will most benefit by the return of salmon on the Elwha River, Glasen said.
In addition to the raven, they include a bear, eagle, otter, cougar and an orca, she said.
Since Friday, Glasen re-created “Raven” from a photo and put the replica in the place of the missing one to fill the empty space.
The raven painting “is about coming out of the void,” she said, adding that the raven is the void and the theft of the sun is symbolic of escaping the void.
The person who took the painting is in a similar void, Glasen said.
“She is in a dark place, and needs to come out of that dark place,” she said.
Glasen asked that the painting be returned to the gallery.
The downtown theft is not the first for Glasen.
Last year, the “Unipus,” a metal sculpture of a one-legged octopus, was stolen from its Front Street sidewalk pedestal.
After the theft was reported in the Peninsula Daily News, the “Unipus” was returned.
“It was really nice when the person who took Unipus brought it back,” she said.
“It’s all about giving back,” she said. “Stealing is not positive karma.”
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.