PORT TOWNSEND — For Craig Rogers, art is a way to bring together the forces that inspire him.

Jazz. Birds. Mountains. Port Townsend, his beloved home.

They’re all painted in intense color in Rogers’ one-man show, “Looking at the World,” at the Northwind Art Grover Gallery.

“I’ve always been kind of mired in my pain, and my disability,” said Rogers, who was born in 1955 with spina bifida, a condition in which the spinal cord doesn’t form normally.

“Art is helping me deal with my disability. It’s helped me to see more things that I wouldn’t see,” he said while showing his exhibition.

It’s his largest ever, with 51 paintings that mix dreams and reality.

“This is my favorite place: the Rose. I love the fountain,” he said of a scene showing the movie theater and Haller Fountain at the corner of Taylor and Washington streets, which happens to be right outside the window of the gallery at 236 Taylor St.

Filling the other walls are his paintings of the mountains of Utah, the state where he grew up; California’s Mojave Desert; Bob Dylan flanked by other musicians; and the now-closed Boiler Room in downtown Port Townsend.

There are also his abstract visions, such as a work titled “Streams of Energy,” and a painting of downtown Port Townsend in the 1950s.

“Looking at the World” is on display through Jan. 17 at the Grover Gallery, operated by the nonprofit Northwind Art organization. The venue is open from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. More information can be found at www.northwinaart.org.

Rogers is considered an “outsider artist,” one who is self-taught and works outside the mainstream, for various reasons.

The painter, who spends time at Port Townsend’s Gatheringplace, a nonprofit center for people with disabilities, said he’s had to overcome a lot of physical obstacles in his life.

His motor skills have deteriorated, he said — but his artistic ability stays strong.

“I have always managed to find new methods to create my art,” said Rogers, who has lived in Port Townsend since the late 1980s.

To paint is to take his mind off his pain. Making art, he added, lets him show a different part of himself to the community.

“To me, Craig’s paintings are like jazz,” said Kathleen Garrett, Northwind Art’s exhibits director.

The images riff off reality, she added — which aligns with the fact that Rogers listens to jazz while working.

He studied the musical genre at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, near where he was raised in Sandy, Utah. He also studied psychology and continues to be intrigued by the subconscious mind.

“Art is challenging for me, and I don’t always know how a piece is going to turn out,” Rogers said.

He added that he continues to learn lessons about painting, about himself — and how to integrate it all.

As for having this gallery exhibition in his community: “I just love being a part of it.”

________

Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.

In his art, Port Townsend’s Craig Rogers paints dreamlike scenes and creatures.