The sword and sorcery genre has achieved some critical legitimacy lately, what with “The Lord of the Rings” films netting multiple Oscars.

But in the art community, the mere mention of warriors holding broadswords or elvish wizards casting spells elicits a few giggles.

“Fantasy art gets a bad rap,” Gary Shainheit said. “That whole group of art styles has been overlooked and dismissed.”

Shainheit is attempting to combat that mind-set. The artist will showcase his own work and three other area talents beginning today at his downtown business, Sacred Sword, 732 Mass. An opening reception at 2 p.m. will be attended by contributing artists Samantha Nowak, Sarah Beth Bainter and Teresa Harrison Starkey.

“I had some of my own stuff on display – not for sale,” Shainheit said. “A representative of the Lawrence Art Guild came in and said, ‘Wow, you guys do gallery work?’ When I told her no, she said, ‘Do you want to?'”

The store had a room set aside for sarongs and tapestries, but Shainheit decided to remodel it into a dedicated gallery section.

“Fantasy art implies the depiction of the world outside of the norm,” he said, citing Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta as icons of the style. “With normal art, we’re going to portray it either as true to life as possible or a little abstract. But abstract art isn’t considered fantasy art.”

Gary Shainheit, owner of The Sacred Sword, 732 Mass. St. is displaying some of his paintings and other artists fantasy artwork at his Art Gallery Room. Shainheit displays his piece A

While Shainheit often prefers painting acrylic images on canvas that involve his store’s namesake (“I’ve always been drawing swords since I was 10 or 12 years old,” he said), his fellow artists focus on different subjects using distinct techniques.

Starkey has used her love of nature photography to characterize her work. She calls her medium “manipulated photographic art.”

“I started playing with how I could change colors and light in my landscapes,” Starkey recalled. “At some point, I decided to try adding a figure to a landscape pathway. After painstakingly cutting out (with the computer mouse) my daughter’s outline from another photo and giving her wings, I was delighted to find that I could effectively marry the images into almost any form I could imagine.”

One of her pieces on display, “Night Path,” won an award in a juried show at the Carnegie Arts Center in Leavenworth.

“Because of my work in metaphysics and mysticism, these ethereal fairy landscapes are a fitting outlet for my artistic endeavors,” she said. “Working with them is meditative.”

Not surprisingly, Shainheit finds all things sword-related to be quite meditative.

“Spiritually, the sword represents a servant of God,” he said.

But isn’t a sword more routinely considered an instrument of violence?

Gary Shainheit, owner of The Sacred Sword.

“Typically, what I tell people is the human mind can take anything in the world around them and use that to hurt people,” he said. “I can take a stick off the street and use it to bash your head in.

“(Sacred Sword) is all about healing and expanding your heart and your mind to connect with the divine.”