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Boulder artists open up
How can area art lovers make the best of their visit? 1) Begin at the Boulder Public Library. Currently the Library's Preview Exhibition displays one work from each of the participating artists. Only art-fanatics with military timing and a fire in their belly could manage to hit all 137 studios in two weekends. The rest of us must pick and choose. With the Preview's range of artists, mediums and styles, everyone's fancies will be tickled. Do you prefer careful, representational, local landscapes or wacky multimedia abstractions? Want to find fly fishing? Rico Kellogg (Studio #29), who works as both an artist and fishing guide, depicts only fly fishing-inspired subjects. Prefer butterfly wings mounted on a hinged glass squares? Rebecca DiDomenico (Studio #32) fragments and frames in "49 Wings." Delighted by dizzying 3-D photographs? Observe Bonny Lhotka's (Studio #96) dimensional Magic Eye-esque "Leaping Lizards." To find furniture crowned with ascending porcine royalty, check out Drew T. Noll's (Studio #8) "High Pig Chair." Sylvia Asten (Studio #75) states that she gleaned inspiration for her "paper batik paintings" from previous Open Studios. Her works weave together photographs, cloth and painting into intricately quilted reconfigured landscapes. Prepare to be inspired. 2) Browse the Biographies. The Open Studios Biographies, also displayed in the Library Gallery, provide more information about the artists who created your favorite Preview pieces. They offer statements of purpose, inspirational quotes and photographs of other works. Not only will these colorful folders help visitors decide which studios to visit, but paging through the hundreds of possibilities produces a childish excitement. The biographies are so much fun you may feel like a kid poring over a holiday-thick toy catalogue, but they are also chock full of clarifying information. While the bikers in Michael Lichter's (Studio #59) glimmering photograph "After the Storm" may seem mere background detail, his biographical pages beg to differ. Lichter asserts that he "shoots Harleys; the bikes, the people, the attitude." Other tantalizing tidbits in the biographies are overt appeals. Velvet Brandy Delicia LeMae (her mother must have known she would be an artist) encourages viewers to "Come to my '50s Ranch!" (Studio #9). Her painting in the Library Gallery "Dupont page 207" cheekily depicts a '50s-era sponge advertisement, using thick candied-pastel paint, images of happily scrubbing housewives, and the provocative ad copy "Soft When Wet." Her biographical pages are just as retro: They have more pastels, more ironic recasting of happy advertisements, and a photo of the artist (bearing more than a passing resemblance to Betty Page) blowing a kiss. Renowned photographer Paula Sussman (Studio #60) entices with "Come see my erotic alphabet, not appropriate for children or the prudish." The colorful irony of her photos fit to print suggest that this "alphabet" will spell naughty thrills. 3) Chart a course. Now use the map in the Tour Guide to create a personal plan for winding through Boulder's sites of artistic production. Open Studios provides an alternative path through Boulder, moving not from errand to errand or from bar to bar, but instead from creative space to creative space. Explore ranches, studios, nooks, crannies, garrets and all that they inspire. See creativity in context, in the studios where the work is produced rather than on sterile gallery walls. Interact with Boulder's artists, observe the artistic process rather than just the finished work, and peruse the works not displayed in galleries. Take advice from Amy Guion Clay (Studio #10). In her multimedia work "Go Now," she layers geometric shapes, a Vermeer painting, penciled hand studies, and stenciled text which states: "the heart knows not how to observe moderation and to apply reins to feelings when struck with desire. GO NOW."
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San Francisco sponsored the first Open Studios 28 years ago, and since then cities around the world have followed its lead. Gary Zeff, Boulder's Open Studios executive director, says he has been to these events across the country and has incorporated the best aspects into Boulder's two-weekend extravaganza. The first two weekends in October, 137 Boulder-area artists will invite the public into their studios to observe the artistic process firsthand.
