It is just after 6 o’clock on a perfect summer evening in Astoria. RiverSea Gallery, which sits on the ground floor of the Copeland Building at 1160 Commercial St., is closed, but through its windows one is able to get at least a taste of the eclectic collection of art and fine craft that populates the gallery’s interior. Virtually everywhere one looks there is something painstakingly handmade and highly affecting: paintings, glass, ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, furniture, even light fixtures. A veritable feast of creativity cooked up by regional and national artists and artisans, both established and emerging.

Among the pieces that catch the eye – and touch the soul – are a splendid studio cabinet of walnut, wenge, ebony and rain glass, and two arresting tables, both with free-form carving, one made of salvaged Oregon black walnut, the other made of sapele, pommele sapele veneer, and wenge inlay. They are the work of Edward Overbay, one of the Northwest’s premier woodworkers and husband of RiverSea owner Jeannine Grafton.

Grafton and Overbay are acknowledged leaders within Astoria’s vibrant arts scene and burgeoning historic-preservation movement. A singular breed of power couple, they are passionately committed to supporting the North Coast’s creative economy. The pair keenly recognizes the power of the arts, craftsmanship, culture and creativity to serve the community’s economic interests, while also reinforcing its character and quality of place. Many credit them, along with a handful of others, for helping transform Astoria into a creative hub of and for artists and artisans.

“They were willing to take a chance on Astoria before many others were willing to jump in and invest their time or money,” says artist and arts activist Rebecca Rubens, a native Astorian. “For them to have established a gallery when they did required real foresight and determination.”

Overbay, who moved to Oregon from rural Texas as a teenager, began Overbay Houseworks in 1974, shortly after graduating from Astoria High School, having discovered his vocation early on: to transform wood of all types into things of utility and beauty. He located his first furniture-making shop in the old hangar building at the Astoria Regional Airport. His current shop is not far from this original site.

Overbay’s dad, an “old-school builder,” was an early influence. The son worked alongside the father on vintage homes, learning all aspects of construction and developing an appreciation for historic architecture and an aptitude for fine design and building. But Overbay’s superb woodworking skills and sophisticated aesthetic sensibility – a sort of non-traditional Japanese-Scandinavian mash-up – are largely due to the many hours he spent in pre-Internet days at the public library, poring over books on great masters of woodworking such as George Nakashima and James Krenov.

“Ed Overbay’s finely crafted work is seen in furniture for sale within the (RiverSea) gallery. It’s also seen in the neighborhoods and commercial districts throughout the Lower Columbia Region,” says local historian John Goodenberger. Goodenberger worked closely with Overbay and local architect Jay Raskin to promote the establishment of Clatsop Community College’s award-winning Historic Preservation and Restoration Program and, as a professional complement to the program, the Columbia-Pacific Preservation Guild.

“Ed’s work can be seen in the restoration of the Allen Building in downtown Astoria or the Cherry Residence on Smith Lake. Or, you can see his picturesque new construction of the Russ and Sue Farmer residence in Astoria,” says Goodenberger. “He approaches buildings with the mindset of a furniture maker, and the result is evident of that.”

In 1976, Overbay took over Astoria’s only gallery at the time, the Bailiwick, which was situated in what now serves as the cantina of the Rio Café on Ninth Street. Back then, Overbay says, Astoria was in “deep economic doldrums, with the canneries, shipyards and plywood mill closing down.” It was undeniably bleak — and things got worse before they got better. The gallery was shuttered in 1977.

The Bailiwick “was the right thing for this town, but just a little too soon,” says Overbay. “Contrasted to that time, what we see now is a significant arts economy here that didn’t exist then. There were just hints of its possibility back in ’76.”

Overbay met Grafton in 1989, when she was working at a Portland gallery that was showing some of his furniture. Grafton hails from a family of artists and entrepreneurs, and she knows talent when she sees it. It seems she fell in love with the man having first fallen in love with his work.

“I’d fallen in love with (a) dresser,” she says. “My desk was in the furniture section of the gallery, and right near it was this amazingly beautiful chest of drawers that Ed had made. It had a formal outline, but the drawers were asymmetrical and delightful. I had an appreciation for the skill it took. So one day Ed walked in — and we hit it off.”

The two had a long-distance romance for a few years — until Grafton also fell in love with Astoria, to which Overbay was deeply committed. “He was never going to leave,” says Grafton. “But I could leave. I didn’t like the way Portland was getting yuppified. So I moved here.” That was in January 1994.

Astoria has long been a magnet for people like Grafton: creative, entrepreneurial, hardworking and authentic. It also attracts people who are eccentric, multi-talented and earnest. “They’re the waitress-beautician-artist-tap-dancer-political-activist — and they’re living it out,” says Grafton with a laugh. On a more serious note, she talks about how profoundly Astoria’s past shapes its present and draws people to it.

“We’re not an easy town on the beach, with T-shirts and taffy. Astoria is its own draw, it’s its own self-qualifier,” she says. “You like history? You like things a little eclectic? Maybe edgy? Astoria draws the right people. It is a self-qualifying place that many of us have helped kind of build up, based on what was here before. We cannot overlook the importance of how it started, because if it had started as something else, we wouldn’t be where we are now. We’re building on fishing, logging, old Scandinavian and Chinese family heritage, the downtown burning down and getting rebuilt twice, plus — and this is really, really important — it’s the confluence of this mighty river and the biggest ocean that brings an energy that translates through.”

For her first few years in Astoria, Grafton worked at the now-defunct but influential Ricciardi Gallery, founded by former Astoria resident Corinne Ricciardi when the city was a rundown shell of what it once had been — and what it was destined to become.

In 1997, Grafton decided to open her own gallery and name it RiverSea, after the extraordinary energy she says pulses through her adopted hometown, where the Columbia and Pacific converge. Overbay shared in the vision.

“There was a universally recognized notion that there needed to be an arts scene here. We realized what was needed was a private organization with vested interest. That’s what we did,” says Overbay.

The two worked together on layout and design of a gallery in just a small part of the space in the historic Copeland Building it now occupies. Overbay pulled out a “modern” suspended ceiling and restored the original high ceilings. He designed and built display cabinets and, in time, oversaw two expansions into adjacent space, including adding interior walls to create separate exhibit areas and to be able to show large works.

“We make a good team,” says Overbay. Grafton smiles and nods in agreement.

Before the Riversea Gallery opened, local artists and others referred to Astoria as a “closet arts town,” because artwork was simply not very easy to find – except at Ricciardi’s. Over the years, RiverSea has had an enormous impact in changing that.

“RiverSea is the nucleus of Astoria’s connections between commerce, community and art. Just about every other arts endeavor has spun off from it or around it,” says Cindy Price. Price, a longtime Astoria resident and current candidate for Astoria City Council, served with Grafton on the original Astoria Arts Commission, convened by Mayor Willis Van Dusen in 1999. “What’s unique about Jeannine and Ed, aside from their good taste and epic commitment, is their support for all the other arts businesses and organizations, even their competitors.”

“The work of Grafton and Overbay has raised the bar for the community,” adds John Goodenberger. “It has inspired others to invest here, too.”