“Lower Granite Dam, Snake River,” an oil by John Moilanen, is part of “Over the River/Through the Woods” at the Coos Art Museum. The environmentally themed exhibit runs today through April 21. World Photos by Lou Sennick

COOS BAY - If Al Gore were to put together an art exhibit, it would probably look much like the Coos Art Museum's new offering.

Washington artist Lee Musgrave laments that there's not much of the old-growth forest left in the Pacific Northwest.

“And they're still trying to cut it down,” he said.

That and a few other inconvenient truths are the focus of “Over the River/Through the Woods,” a 56-piece exhibit opening today at the museum in downtown Coos Bay.

“The seven artists that are in the exhibit all have concerns about what is happening to the old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest and the quality of water in our rivers, lakes and reservoirs,” said Musgrave, who curated the exhibit. “It's artwork with a message.”

The message is evident almost from the moment one steps into the museum's Maggie Karl Gallery. Though trees and rivers are the inspiration for a great deal of art, most of which is not political, there are no innocuous landscapes here. Whether the trees are shown stripped down, carved up or pulsing with a bloodlike life force, these works signal the artists' environmentalist bent.

And in case the message isn't clear, each piece is accompanied by a comment from the artist - unusual for exhibits at the local museum. Even more unusual, the comments are illuminating, avoiding the vague, evasive style artists often use in their written statements.

The messages also are amplified by grouping the works by artist, allowing each of the seven to have a distinct platform. Trees are the focus for four artists, and rivers for the other three, all of whom live in either the Puget Sound area or along the Columbia Gorge.

Most overtly political are the sculptures of Henry DePosit of Seattle, which occupy the center of the gallery. A large installation of barren Christmas trees provides a forest viewers must look through to see other works from a distance. Other pieces carved from wood include a bulldozer/tank and a space shuttle (accompanied by a jab at Ronald Reagan). “Wilderness Experience” features a tree stump painted with the American flag and carved with compartments holding junk food, beer and soda cans, playing cards and an issue of TV Guide, as well as lottery tickets littered about.

Games are prominent themes in two other works - “Thinking to Oneself,” a painting by Musgrave that shows a chess board carved into a tree stump, and “The Weight,” a sculpture by Don Freas of Olympia, Wash., which includes toy soldiers, toy cars, Monopoly houses and a pair of dice among the items supported by the thin beams emerging from a central trunk.

“Gambling with the future - that's how I think about,” Musgrave said, explaining how the theme is used in the three works. “I'm amazed at how decisions get made with old-growth forests and the purity of water. It's like rolling the dice. There's no logic to it that I can see.”

After discussing examples from inaction on global warming to racing ATVs on the dunes, Musgrave came back to his piece: “I chose chess because it's a game that you have to think about how your moves affect your future options.”

Musgrave's works are part of a series showing tree trunks carved in different ways. Contrasting these stages of death in the forest are the paintings of Amirra Malak of Hood River, which emphasize the forest's veins of life. According to Musgrave, Malak was overwhelmed by the lush forests of Oregon when she moved here from the desert of her native Egypt. Arabic words are inscribed in the paintings around a central leaf; Malak has described the writing as a prayer for the health of the forest.

Freas' sculptures, also mainly carved from wood, feature human or animal figures in precarious positions amid a delicate balance of opposing forces, calling attention to issues of progress and sustainability. One piece shows two figures with joined hands whose free hands are holding a cord that wraps around a wheel below them.

“I could feel that they were pulling towards and away from each other. But they don't know that, that they are what they are pulling against,” Freas said, describing the piece. “There's a mechanized aspect to it. It could be the way our culture turns us into cogs in the machine.”

Then there are the water artists. A series of paintings by John Moilanen of Shoreline, Wash., shows several dams on the rivers of the Northwest. Though some are quite scenic, there is a stark contrast between the sides of the dam, emphasizing it as “a cold, mechanical thing, blocking the life force” of the water, Musgrave said.

From a distance, pieces combining photography and painting by John Maher of Rowena might be mistaken for pretty seascapes. But up close, multicolored lines running through them highlight the impurities of the water. Similarly, in paintings by Pat Tolle of Mukilteo, Wash., water isn't the color you expect it to be, and surrounding farms suggest agricultural runoff is to blame.

While the downstairs galleries sound the alarm on environmental issues, an entirely different show is upstairs: Vision 2007, the annual high school art competition sponsored by the Southwestern Oregon Community College Foundation. Portraits of movie stars, fantasy art and a prom dress from sketch to completion are included among the 89 works by 64 students at 11 Southern Oregon schools: Bandon, Brookings-Harbor, Coquille, Douglas, Gold Beach, Illinois Valley, Marshfield, Myrtle Point, North Bend, Reedsport and Yoncalla.

Nineteen winners will be announced at a reception at 3:30 p.m. today, with the top three awards being cash purchases of artwork that will belong to the college when the exhibit closes April 17.

At 5 p.m. there is a reception for “Over the River/Through the Woods,” which runs through April 21.

Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $5 and $2 for seniors and students.