“ The world is in dire need of good experiences. ... People want experiences. They want good ones. They need them. They need them for their life ... when those people come to you and you can conduct a class and experience, they walk out feeling somewhat healed that day, that’s no crap. That’s an accomplishment. I don’t want them to just stand up there and swing a brush.”
Just a few short decades ago, Buckeye Lake was a major destination for Midwesterners of all backgrounds. Suit up to hit the beachy shore of the lake, grab a drink and relax under the hot summer sun. Familiar faces are everywhere you look. Smiles surround you as people talk about nothing in particular, they’re simply enjoying the moment, fleeting as it may be. Eventually, you might take shelter from the sun or refresh your drink in Club 51, the site of modern day Papa Boo’s. As you enter, the chatter gets quieter, but the music gets louder, stirring you and making your heart beat faster. At the helm is a 22-year-old Gayla Smith. Smith played that gig for two years, her crooning, mesmerizing voice as quintessential Buckeye Lake as the lake itself.
Gala started playing the piano as soon as she could reach the keys, and soon learned the bass, ukulele and guitar. Eventually, she even learned the accordion. Smith is a natural performer, and doesn’t let anyone off the hook; if you’re not dancing, singing along or reacting to the music at one of Smith’s gigs, she’ll throw everything she’s got at you until you begin to move. And she’s a stubborn one. “Picking a cover that’s going to provoke reactions – that’s the one you want to do, because that’s what makes them happy,” Smith says. “You want to look up and see everybody singing, and when they don’t, I beat them into submission.” Being a musician was a key part of her identity. Until one day when she woke up, walked past her guitar and instead picked up a pencil and paper. She was 40. “…I started drawing millions of cats and fish. I was just, like, I had a thing. An obsession.” Smith continued to perform, but she became more and more focused on her visual art, which moved from graphite to paint.
Clearly influenced by Buckeye Lake, her home since she was 10, her paintings are colorful, whimsical and cheerful, featuring sea creatures like mermaids, fish, and turtles. And in the last couple of decades, Smith’s visual art has taken her far. She brought her performing chops to Ohio Tourism Day 2019 for a live painting. The result was The Statehouse, which highlights cornerstones of the Buckeye State, from the cardinal and the state flag to, of course, the Ohio Statehouse. Then, in July she presented the work to Governor Mike DeWine at the Ohio Governor’s Residence and Heritage Garden. Looking back, she calls it the “happiest day.” “I think when you’re going in the direction you’re supposed to go in, things come to you that you can’t picture,” Smith says. “I couldn’t have pictured this. I couldn’t have pictured what happened at the governor’s mansion; I could’ve never pictured that. Things just started happening for me that you couldn’t make up.” That’s not to say hard work wasn’t involved – Smith is a powerhouse.
Gayla moved to Buckeye Lake with her family before there were any full-time residents, and she remembers cutting overgrowth and clearing the lot where her childhood home would be built. She can still feel the water as she swam at the Crystal Swimming Pool. She can still see the piano and the chandelier in the Crystal Ballroom, and remembers how it looked as it slowly deteriorated. She loves retelling stories about Buckeye Lake that had been told to her, stories kept alive by the Buckeye Lake Historical Society, like when the Black Diamond wrecked. She gets chills talking about when the dance hall floor fell in in 1924, and seven people died after being thrown into the dark waters below. She may not have been around for many of those stories, but she feels they’re a part of her.
One night, she came home to a chain-link fence backed against her home. Heavy machinery lurked in her back yard, looming high over her house – evidence of a four-mile-long dam remediation going on at the time. The construction took on a life of its own. She says the equipment looked like dinosaurs. The land she’d spend nearly her whole life on began to change in a way she didn’t recognize or understand. “I couldn’t go to the lake for four years,” Smith says. “At that time, it was four feet away. I still couldn’t go.” However, the spirit of the lake wasn’t gone. And now, with the lake back to normal, she sees enthusiasm again, she sees parties on the lake, she sees places like the Chef Shack, North Shore Coffee Co. and The Boatyard at Buckeye Lake exemplifying the relaxed history of the area, and Buckeye Lake Brewery embodying the essence of the Buckeye Lake she knew as a 22-year-old, banging on the keys of Club 51’s piano.
And her art – colorful, calming, delightful – is the perfect reflection of the new Buckeye Lake. It’s a place with so much history, so many ups and downs, and so much growth that it almost doesn’t feel real. And yet, every morning and evening, the sun rises and sets, the light dancing off the lake, bringing with it new joys and new challenges. “I like escape. That’s the biggest word: escape,” Smith says. “The reason why I paint is because I don’t want to stay real. I have enough reality in my life.”
