Open Studio Event

On Saturday Sept. 20th I had the chance to visit many artist studios in Cleveland, OH as part of an event organized by City Artists at Work. It was fun and I met some people making engaging art. I like meeting new artists and talking about their processes and methods of ideamaking. It can feel a little weird being in a strangers space and in the case of live/work spaces their home. I have opened my studio in the past and I always find it positive overall. There may be the occasional person who wants to criticize your work to pieces, ok there always seems to be this kind of person in every group, but its easy to deal with once you decide what your purpose is and what you will and will not put up with. It could be constructive and helpful criticism - or not. Some people can get personally annoyed with certain types of work - I guess I'll include myself here - I'm not interested in work where the artist is not engaged with what they are doing (so long as its legal, in most cases).
An artist who is willing to open up and share - often something that is personal or private (weather the artist is aware of it or not) - always exposes themselves to the risk of being treated horribly. I think there is always more to be gained than lost in trying to connect and share with others.

Sculptor Talk: Richard Hunt

This past Friday I went to an opening/artist talk for the sculptor Richard Hunt. I was a little late but was there for the entire talk. He was pretty cool I thought, he is in his 70's and has had a long artistic career. He talked about the sculptures he made for the Sculpture Center in Cleveland, about how at one time he said he wanted to make his sculptures look like baroque music (and that he stopped saying that). He has been doing mostly public commission work for the past 20+ years and has a studio in Chicago, Ill. There were questions from the small crowd. One commented on his attention to the surface - the markings made of crosshatched lines and a comparison was made to intaglio etching. He works in steel and other metals that are manipulated and welded together.

First Day

This is my first post and I'm not sure yet what I will be talking about but it will be related to things I find interesting