The faces behind the red door of the Art Gallery in Murphys bring life, love and art to the county and the world.

Artists George Durkee and Sharon Strong share the cozy two-story gallery on Main Street, filled with mystical masks, colorful landscape paintings and even a small sitting area.

Together, Durkee, 65, and Strong, 62, manage and own the Art Gallery in Murphys, across the street from the Murphys Hotel. They make their home on a 2 ½-acre plot in the quiet hills of Mountain Ranch.

In both their relationship and art, Durkee and Strong blend very different backgrounds and styles. And together it works.

At age 14, Durkee ran away from his home near Seattle to lead a more independent life. He lived on the streets and in a hideout in a park in Tacoma. During this time, Durkee had no interest in art whatsoever.

“I was interested in girls,” he admitted, wearing paint-streaked jeans during an interview at the gallery.

It wasn’t until age 25, while working on a farm pruning apple trees, that Durkee discovered art. He was living in Yakima and his employer, Irene Watkins, was an amateur artist n a “Sunday painter.”

“She gave me some materials and I started painting,” Durkee said.

He struggled with painting for a year before he began to seriously apply himself. He took a correspondence course and got a graveyard janitor’s job. It was perfect.

“I could study and paint all day and be tired on the other guy’s time,” he said.

Four years later, Durkee’s only formal art training n the mail order painting class n was complete. He quit his job and became a full-time painter.

“I haven’t worked for anyone since March 1, 1975,” Durkee said proudly.

He remained in Yakima for a few years, showing and selling his work, which was mostly landscape paintings.

Durkee moved to Eureka then to Portland. He settled in San Francisco in 1982.

He quickly learned an important lesson about the city’s road rules.

“I didn’t realize you could park for only two hours at a time before getting tagged,” he said.

While collecting parking tickets, Durkee painted a view looking down Columbus Avenue toward the Transamerica Pyramid. He traded the painting to Canadian tourists for a few hundred dollars. He used the money to move into an apartment on Filbert Street with schizophrenic poets.

“When you paint on the street, you meet all kinds of people,” Durkee said.

Within six months his work was hanging in the window of City Gallery in the St. Frances Hotel, between the works of Picasso and Miro.

He painted in San Francisco for 20 years and appeared in numerous galleries in the city.

“To this day I get e-mails from people all over wanting cityscapes,” Durkee said.

He said he’s finished painting cityscapes. He’s moved into the next course of his life.

Unlike Durkee, Strong always held a passion for art.

Strong was born and raised in Orange County. She said she always had the desire to be an artist when she grew up.

“I was probably drawing before I was walking,” she said.

She took art in high school, and continued to study at Long Beach State. Strong’s parents divorced when she was 17. She was married at age 18 and had a baby at 19.

“I married to replace the family I had lost,” Strong said.

She spent the next 18 years earning a bachelor’s degree in business while she raised three children and worked at a preschool. In 1980, Strong had to make a choice to pursue an education in art or psychology. She chose psychology.

“Art is so personal, I didn’t want my profession to be art making,” Sharon explained. She earned a B.A., masters, and PhD in Psychology in seven years.

In 1989, Strong moved to Berkeley. Now well-known for her mask making, Strong created her first mask nine years ago.

She painted the image from a dream: an angry masked woman dancing. Once finished, Strong knew she had to go further with the concept. She created her first mask using her own face to begin the sculpting.

“I haven’t painted two-dimension since,” Strong said.

People in the city began to ask questions about the masks.

“They’re as old as human history and were always created to tell a story,” Strong said.

She began to write stories with her masks. She continued this pattern over the years and before she knew it she had written a book.

The two met through a mutual friend in Durkee’s San Francisco studio in April 2000.

“Within 15 minutes I fell in love with Sharon,” Durkee remembered.

He said he had enough life experience to know just what he wanted in a woman. He recognized her right away.

“She owned her stuff,” he said with a smile.

Strong was not looking for a romantic relationship, but she liked him right away.

“It was with the first hug. He gives the best hugs,” she said.

At the time Strong lived in Oakland and owned land in Mountain Ranch. The couple made weekend trips from the Bay Area to Mountain Ranch. The more they came to Calaveras, the more they thought “why do we keep going back?” Durkee remembered. They moved to Calaveras in 2001 and purchased their home about three years ago.

After breakfast at the Murphys Hotel, they saw the building with a for-lease sign. Strong was on the phone right away. When she gets an idea, Durkee said, she does it.

“It’s the perfect location in Murphys to have a gallery. How long do you have to think about it?” Strong said. Two weeks later the gallery was open for business.

The gallery is ideal for the couple, who prefer to market the work themselves.

To Durkee, selling art through a dealer and not knowing the buyer “is like raising a kid, sending him into the world and never seeing him again.”

The couple also uses the gallery for a number of community events. They host Summer Saturday Nights n evenings of performance art, live music and poetry. It’s a free event open to everybody.

Strong has held workshops through Calaveras County Mental Health and the Calaveras County Arts Council. She has worked with Avery Middle School sixth graders and students from Oakendell School. Last spring, the gallery’s art was removed to hang up 95 student-made masks.

“(There was) kid energy up and down the stairs,” Strong said.

She holds about six weekend mask workshops a year n four seasonally for adults, and two summertime workshops for kids.

Two summers ago the gallery welcomed the Sister’s Project. Women from Bay Area women’s shelters shared their photography, poetry and personal stories. They plan to feature the Sister’s Project again this summer.

The couple’s personal aspirations differ to this day. As a full-time artist, Durkee said he would like to improve his painting skills. He added that he wants to mentor one or two young artists.

“To give something back,” he said.

He recently finished his book “Oil Painting for Yourself” and is in the process of publishing.

Strong practices psychology two days a week in San Andreas.

Her future goals?

“To be receptive with my mind, heart and soul, and live creatively,” Strong responded.

In 2005 she published her book “Soul Unmasked,” which is sold online and at the gallery.

Despite dissimilarities, the couple share a similar outlook on love and business.

“When you’re with somebody you love,” Strong said, “you have to remember to share the gift everyday.”

Their vision for the gallery is agreed upon:

“To be a center for creativity and community in Calaveras County,” they said together.

Contact Kate Gonzales at kate@calaverasenterprise.com.