by Lynette Charters Serembe
Most artists’ paths are winding, with twists, turns, and well calculated risks. No exception with the owners of Copper Wolf, which was started as a business in 2015 when Danny Gordo came home one day and told Aimee Schreiber he’d quit his day job; they were going to open a tattoo studio. Schreiber was instantly on board, and they obviously make a strong, talented, and enterprising team. They both started their fine art painting practice in 2019 when they moved into their new premises.
Copper Wolf Studios and Gallery is nestled off 2ND Avenue in Tumwater, in a well-maintained craftsman house. Inside, they have kept much of the old-world charm of the original house and made the space into a beautiful and tastefully finished gallery, with great lighting and welcoming communal space, alongside the tattoo artists’ personal studio spaces. Gordo says, “Copper Wolf creates a space showcasing art, bringing people together to further conversations and bridge gaps.” Schreiber rightly points out “Art needs walls and space.”
Their ambitions for their current location were to combine their multitude of talents, with their first-rate tattoo studio, and their love for fine art. Copper Wolf hosts five tattoo artists who are themselves prolific and accomplished fine artists. They are Cass Brown, Lydia Pitts, Mary Kuzmin, David Cheifetz, and Danny Gordo himself. The Studio is also a teaching space. Gordo teaches one student from the Avanti Creative Economy program program connecting students from Cecily Schmidt’s art classes at Avanti High School with practicing artists; he also teaches seven students from the PEARL program for homeschoolers.
Gordo started his journey as a musician, initially playing guitar, then drums, (his band POME got a deal with Atlantic Records when he was just 24). He holds a BFA (Summa Cum Laude) in Illustration, but as a young adult he started his career path as a software engineer, all the while admiring the visual arts from a distance. During his time in band culture, he found himself mixing with tattooed people and tattoo artists, and so he learned how to tattoo to augment his income. Being the founder of Copper Wolf, he uses this platform to pursue his passion for painting. He is the 2025 Robert B. McMillen Foundation MAC Award winner.
Gordo’s oil paintings and graphite drawings depict highly skilled meticulous portraits. His earlier painted portraits are more colorful and caricatured, his more recent ones have a more limited color palette and utilize the drama of pronounced chiaroscuro, with the depicted person’s symbolic signature/spirit article hovering overhead, or somewhere close by. He employs the occasional surreal narrative, which adds tension, and yet in contradiction, in his paintings there is a relaxed familiarity. Gordo’s art offers a reconciliation to existing in an imperfect world, which feels both intensely personal yet universal.
Schreiber says she grew up with an obsession for art. A a child she loved to draw, paint, and write poems. As a student she earned her degree in Exercise Science with a double minor in Art and Psychology. She is a registered Hatha Yoga instructor, but she always wanted to paint and so manages both these career paths. She originally scored a job in graphic arts for 10 years and learned digital art skills and marketing, which she effectively employs for Copper Wolf while working as Gallery Director and furthering her career in her fine art painting.
Schreiber works in open acrylics, her paintings revere moths in their various natural settings exploring their natural transience and vulnerability, while employing icon-like symbolism (halos, scale, and centralizing their position in the painting) to revere their beauty and resilience; these contradictory narratives coexist comfortably in her canvases. The backgrounds of her moth paintings echo the patterns in the moths’ wings celebrating their beauty in cryptic coloration, her new pieces acknowledge the moths’ existence in the dark ecosystem. She expresses concern that in our modern existence we live uncomfortably out of tune with our circadian rhythms, whereas nature relies on it to survive.
Schreiber and Gordo are both board members of Olympia Artspace Alliance, an organization that pays artists and facilitates them to fill vacant storefront windows with art in downtown Olympia. They enjoy this position as it builds networks and connects artists to resources and enriches local creative culture.
Copper Wolf showed at this year’s Seattle Arts Fair, Gordo’s work is currently showing at The Harlequin Productions State Theater lobby gallery alongside their production of Murder on the Orient Express until Nov 2. Both Schriber and Gordo are showing at Ossa Skinworks until Oct 30.
Copper Wolf has previously hosted around 20 gallery exhibits. This 10-year celebration’s theme is Memento Mori. You will see a curated collection of works on the theme by: Danny Gordo (@dannygordoart), Aimee Schreiber (@aimeeschreiber), Cass Brown (@grayillu), Lydia Pitts (@mossbeam_), Mary Kuzmin (@mk_inktrap), Ayda Rose (@aydaintheoffing), David Cheifetz (@davidcheifetz), and Allison Rose, (@allison_rose_art).
Photo by Connor Rubin.
There will be live music and refreshments, bring your friends and family (costumes encouraged). There will be a giveaway prize of 10 hours of custom tattooing by Danny Gordo, also a limited-edition Death’s Head Moth art print embellished with 24K gold by Aimee Schreiber.
WHAT:
Copper Wolf’s 10-year anniversary celebration and gallery exhibit, Memento Mori
WHEN:
Anniversary celebration Saturday, Nov. 1, 4-7 p.m.
Gallery Hours: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
WHERE:
1126 2nd Ave., Tumwater
COST:
Free
LEARN MORE:
https://thecopperwolf.com/blogs/news/memento-mori-art-show
Check out for their next call for art: https://thecopperwolf.com/pages/deep-sleep