Well, today is the day that I am sure all our Artour artists are working very hard doing last minute preparations  for the Studio Tour tomorrow! Studios are being cleaned, signs put up, last minute artwork finished up, kilns being unloaded, displays put up and probably some food being prepared! I know I sure am; the chickens have been fenced off, the studio is pretty clean, the kiln unloaded and all that remains are for pots to be put out and priced and my cats briefed on being nice to all the people who will come by.

My studio cats hard at work helping me get ready.

My two guest artist (Juan Fried and Mary Ellen Frame) will be putting up their displays today and putting out their wares tomorrow morning.

Here are a few guest-posts that came in:

Dave Peterson writes about his evolution as a woodturner:

This is my first year participating in the ArTour as an artist, rather than as a spectator. Here’s why.

Before I moved to Northfield three years ago, I knew I wanted to be a woodturner, and had dabbled. I was by no stretch a professional turner. The only evidence of my ambition was the equipment I had acquired. I was missing an image of myself as a professional woodturner. At best, I was tentative and even a little apologetic about my work. The community I had been living in didn’t provide support or incentive. I knew only one or two people with whom I shared my work. My family (fortunately a numerous tribe) was my only attentive audience. Then, I moved to Northfield and everything changed. Here, I found a large, creative, enthusiastic, generous, warm and supportive community of artists and artisans. I found wood-, glass-, and leather- workers; jewelers and metalworkers; bead and fabric artists; photographers and painters; and ceramicists. These are people whose work is at the center of their lives. They showed me this and shared the energy they put into their art. Best of all, they simply assumed I was as serious and committed as they are. They assumed that I was one of them. They have encouraged me in more ways than I can list. With very little evidence to go on, they took my efforts seriously. They took it for granted that what I made was worth my time and effort and worthy of their attention. As I got to know them, they began asking about my work. They now press me to take myself seriously and to spend more time in my shop. The more I get to know them, the more energized I am. No less important, I found that the larger community, the people and culture of Northfield, also support the kind of work I want to do. They support the arts community by making sales and exhibition events possible and by attending them. People stop me often to say they have seen my work and appreciate it. My father-in-law once told me that the most sincere form of appreciation is money. In this way too, the larger community – Northfield, Rice County, southeast Minnesota – has shown the value they put on my work So all in all, as a Northfield artisan, I take myself more seriously than seemed possible before. I value my work more highly. So, I work to improve my skill, to raise the quality and enhance the beauty of everything I make. The opportunity to participate in the Artour is one more step in this process. My warm thanks to the artists and people of Northfield! I will be showing my work at the studio of Barbara Zavaruha, a generous person and ceramicist who makes useful things of great beauty. But then, that is true of everyone showing their work in the ArTour.

Kathy Anderson also speaks of community in her post:

Community Weaving at Studio #7

As I prepare to warp my traveling loom for the 2014 Studio ArTour I eagerly anticipate seeing many of you sit down at the loom to give it a try.  The “no mistakes” philosophy means you can approach the selection of color and texture with absolute freedom. -Missed a few of the warp threads as you pass the shuttle through? -Yarn pulled a bit tighter than the last person? -Your beat a bit harder than those before you? No problem! It’s all a part of the beauty of the final piece.

Truly, it is amazing how a section with an unexpected pop of color blends right in once the piece is completed and taken off the loom. Your personalities some shining through and it makes me smile.   When I need to “get out of my box” or feel stuck I often turn to the community pieces for inspiration to bring back a playful approach to my weaving.  Thank You! Last year, fellow Studio #7 artist Patsy Dew took some fabulous pictures of the Community piece and skillfully created one of her beautiful boxes for me.  I love it! You’ll have to check it out when you stop by.

Rand Whillock,  a new stop on the tour, describes what you will find when you stop by their Studios; lots of great art!

Four Whillock family artists converge on Ivan Whillock studio for an open house as part of the Southern Minnesota Studio Tour

Ivan Whillock, renowned artist and woodcarver will host at his studio, two of his sons and a niece. Chris Whillock is also a woodcarver, Rand Whillock does glasswork, and Ivan’s niece Katie (Whillock) Olson works in ceramics.

Ivan Whillock did his first wood carvings at the age of twelve in his father’s furniture shop. He received his art degree in 1959 and has studied with sculptor Angel Lillo, and master carver Eduardo Gutierrez. Ivan’s wood sculpture, bronze statues, and reliefs can be found in churches, businesses and private collections around the world. Ivan is also renowned as an excellent teacher and has authored many books on woodcarving and art. Ivan says that “One of the joys of wood carving is that there is beauty in the material itself.” He also says that his fascination is in trying to take advantage of the beauty of wood while challenging its limitations. Ivan also plays in the Faribault based swing band “Jivin’ Ivan and the Kings of Swing along with another brother, Mark Whillock. More of Ivan’s art work can be seen on his web page at: www.whillock.com.

Ivan’s son, Chris Whillock is a woodcarver from Faribault, Minnesota specializing in hand carved wood spirits and Santa carvings. He uses mainly basswood and cottonwod bark for his creations. Chris also teaches woodcarving, hosts a local carving club and runs a woodcarving tool and supply business at: www.woodcarverswarehouse.com.

Ivan’s oldest son, Rand, is late to the art field having taken up glass working about 7 years ago. Many of Rand’s works are inspired by nature. He employs techniques including: torch-work, fusing, slumping and glass blowing. Some of his best works combine multiple techniques. Rand is looking forward to displaying his work alongside his dad, brother, Chris and cousin, Katie. Some of Rand’s artwork can be seen at: www.whillockvisionsglass.com.

Ivan’s niece, Katie (Whillock) Olson, is a ceramics artist from Owatonna. Katie’s love for throwing and creating pottery started 8 years ago simply by signing up for a pottery class at her local art center. She took a hiatus during her pregnancy and births of her daughter and son. But has returned now to enjoy her weekly Monday Mud Club nights at the Owatonna Art Center. Katie creates functional pottery for the home and garden. Her pieces vary from mugs to bowls to vases and serving platters. Katie is excited to spend a weekend sharing her relatively new passion for creating art with her richly talented uncle and cousins.

The Ivan Whillock Studio is located at 122 1^st Ave NE in Faribault. Works of the four artists will be on display Friday October 17^th from 4 to 8, Saturday October 18^th from 10 to 6 and Sunday October 19^th from 11 to 5. There will also be live woodcarving demonstrations at the studio throughout the weekend.

Last weekend, Liz Rolfsmeier wrote an article for the Star Tribune featuring the Studio ArTour.  Read the full article HERE

By Patsy Dew

October has long been my favorite month of the year, and for the past three years I have spent one October weekend (the ArTour weekend) “behind door #7” as one of the seven artists hosted by Tom and Judy Saye-Willis. I look forward to spending this weekend again in Judy’s studio in the woods, watching the changing light as it filters through the golds, greens and reds.  Last year Judy did a demonstration of the Shibori dyeing process, and I marveled at the beauty of these scarves blowing in the wind. 

I anticipate another fun weekend showing and selling my photographic works, and sharing time with this great group of fellow-artists – Judy Saye-Willis, Tom Willis, Kathy Anderson, Sue Peoples, Joan Herzog  and DeAnn Egvall (she made this dragon)

Studio ArTour Artist Julie Fakler is painting a new series of portraits of the SAFE Sanctuary animals. SAFE (*Saving Animals From Euthanasia) Sanctuary is a non-profit volunteer organization that fosters animals in the Faribault area.

This project is helping artist Julie Fakler refine and improve her painting style, focus on composition, and the study of color. SAFE Sanctuary has provided Julie with a variety of models that have challenged her ability to paint different breeds of cats and dogs.

This new body of work will be exhibited at the Owatonna Art Center November 2-23. The opening reception will be on Sunday, November 9th from 1 to 4pm with a demonstration at 2:00pm.

The portraits will also be exhibited at SAFE Sanctuary’s annual fundraiser in the beginning of February. Then they will be in the Vranesh Boardroom Gallery at the Paradise Center for the Arts February17 through April 7, with an opening reception February 20^th from 5-7pm.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

More information can be found at the links below:

http://test.oacarts.org/

http://www.paradisecenterforthearts.org/

http://safesanctuary.org/

Many of our artists are letting us know what they are up to in order to get ready for the tour.

Cindy Robinson checks in:

I bought a dozen scarves in a variety of fibers at the beginning of the summer, intending to dye and paint them in preparation for this year’s Studio Art Tour. Life got busy, however, and I couldn’t make up my mind what processes I wanted to utilize on them.

I finally got inspired a week or two ago, deciding that I wanted to use the same shibori style, multiple dye bath approach on the scarves that I use on the fabrics I create for my quilts. I dyed each scarf first in a scrunch (mottled) dye-bath of a bright color: golden yellow, turquoise, or magenta. Then came the fun part of deciding how to manipulate the scarf and bind it before over-dyeing once, twice, and sometimes three times in different colors to get rich, beautiful and interesting final results.

The rayon scarves take the dye really well, and the cotton scarves are so soft and comfortable to wear. I still have some silk ones to experiment on . . .

We are just over 3 weeks out from the 10th annual Artour (October 18 & 19)and our artists are hard at work making art and getting their studios ready.

Some, like Glynnis Lessing, have just returned from art fairs and must create more work.
Others are excitedly preparing for their first Tour, like the guest artists at her studio.
Glynnis has a busy art fair schedule all summer and has had to make enough work between each event for the next fair. Usually there are about 3 weeks between events.

This means throwing and trimming her porcelain pottery on the wheel,

waiting for it to dry to leather-hard, putting black slip on the surface and free-hand drawing images on them

and then carving away the negative spaces,

much like a woodcut- but each pot is a unique work!

She then bisk-fires those pieces in an electric kiln for about 5 hours and after unloading the cooled kiln, glazes them with a clear glaze, packs them up and takes them to a gas kiln where they are fired for about 12 hours to a temperature of around 2350° farenheit!

After 2+ days, the kiln is cool enough to unload and once again, the pots are packed up, brought back to the studio and photographed and priced. Often they must be packed up again for an art fair.
Of course this is all the fun part of being an artist.

Glynnis also must mix glazes and slips, manage her business, go up to the city to buy supplies, spend 2 days selling in her booth- rain or shine- at art fairs,

and, most important of all, make sure her studio cats are fed and cared for!

Most recently, Glynnis is back from a successful fair at the Plaza in Kansas City and now she is gearing up for the Artour where she hopes many people will visit and see her studio
 

and enjoy the cats and chickens

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By all accounts we had a great turn out for this year’s tour!  Thank you so much to all the folks who traveled the back roads and stopped in to chat, have a bite to eat and take home some beautiful, local, hand-made art.

It was so nice to meet the people (face to face) who want to have our artwork in their homes to use and appreciate.  We hope you had as good a time as we did.

One such visitor even wrote about our artists and their passion in Her blog. You can read her thoughts on our ArTour here.

http://mnprairieroots.com/2013/10/21/on-artour-the-passion-of-southern-minnesota-artists/

So thank you all for coming out in all kinds of weather (and that was just in one day!) and making this a successful and exciting Studio Artour.

*If you missed the tour, you can find many of our Artists’ work at the Fine Craft Collective in Northfield during November and December.

By all accounts the first day of the tour was a great success! Many folks came out and met artists, watched demonstrations and purchased beautiful works of art.

For those of you coming out today, Sunday, to enjoy the fall colors as you travel from one studio to another, here is a downloadable map  that you can print out if you need to.map_2013

and here is a list of our artists and studios:artists_list

And to everyone who came out yesterday, a big thank you!! We will be in our Open Studios again today, all day until 5 pm!

Judy Saye-Willis will be doing indigo vat dying demonstrations during the Artour at her studio- Sunset Studio #7
Here is an image of a pale indigo and a clay resist.

Many other artists will be doing demonstrations at their studios too!

Jennifer Wolcott will be doing something with metal at her studio #2

The Trinket Foundry is a fascinating place where they make several types of  very unique  of beads, they will be demonstrating- stop #6

In Studio 18 Mary Beth Coyle shows jewelry and paper monoprints

J.M. Johnson is a painter demonstrating at stop # 19.

Diane Lockerby will be out at studio 10 making pottery

as will Dawn Makarios at studio #13

and also at Prairie Creek Pottery, stop  #9, where Barbara Zaveruha will be doing wheel throwing demonstrations with tools she has made herself.

So if you want to see an artist at work, Please stop by these studios and don’t be afraid to ask questions!