With the Fall Open Studios Tour only two weeks away, we artists open our doors to the public and welcome the world to see our creations. It's a special time for artists - after working diligently, alone in our isolated corners of the world, we fling open and expose others to our processes, our works that either flowed out easily or with a struggle, and our spaces. Our studio spaces, and often by proximity, we share our living spaces too.
What most visitors don't realize is that we artists often create in bursts and spurts. Unlike cooking where you usually have to clean up the kitchen before you start the next meal, many of us work with focus and intent and often lose a sense of time, and then get called away to real life. Barely cleaning our brushes, or remembering to close up the jar of glue, or taking care of the rags soaked with flamable solvents.
So when the Open Studios tour comes along, many artists are scrambling to wipe down the spider webs, restack the canvases as well as spruce up the gardens and entryways. While many bemoan this part of the tour, most also share their joy when they're done. They can see the paint-spattered floor again, found some unfinished work that is after-all finished, and some tool they thought they had lost!
We fling open our doors to the public and spend a few days just talking art. Sometimes we feel judged or inadequate, more often we just love the human interaction and having outsiders comment on our work and maybe occasionally buy something they feel they want to live with in their own space.
So, come on in! There are 60 artists with cleaned up creative corners just waiting to be explored!
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