Yellow Springs Artist Studio Tour: meet my three guest artists

Photo by Susan Gardner, 2010.

The Yellow Springs Artist Studio Tour is this coming weekend, Sat., Oct. 15 and Sun. Oct. 16, from 10 am-6 pm both days. This is my fourth year participating as a host, and this year I have 3 guest artists. We have 27 artists at 8 locations! 13 of the guests are new to the tour and we also have one host who is new to the tour.

Kate and Dave Chesar are guests at my studio. They make pottery that is a collaborative effort in their home studio in Dayton. Each piece is created by trading and combining their inspirations throughout the throwing, decorating, and glazing process. Carved textures and scenes, slip brushwork, and sculptural elements serve to accentuate the graceful forms of their functional artwork.

J Austin Jennings is also a guest at my studio. She creates a unique treatment of collage application which takes ‘mixed media’ to a new level. Her works stem from earthly themes, and present a playful interaction, both between the metaphoric inferences and within the mixing of mediums, creating a correspondence between the ‘real’ and the ‘imagined.’ Critically acclaimed, her original collage-over-acrylic pieces have won numerous awards, including a featured spot in The Artist’s Magazine’s Year’s Best Art, 2009. 

My third guest is Theresa Mayer. Theresa is captivated by melting rods of glass and turning them into beads. She has discovered that she can express feelings and emotions in the beads she creates. She enjoys seeing that different people see an assortment of things in them.

The tour is a driving tour. Visit the Yellow Springs Artist Studio Tour website for information about the other host and guest artists and to download a map. Maps can also be picked up at the Winds Cafe, Young's Dairy, the Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce and at the artist's studios the days of the tour.

Weekend of art in Yellow Springs

Yellow Springs Artist Studio Tour: Sat. Oct. 16 & 17, 11 am-5 pm. For map of participating artists, click here.
- There is one other fiber artist besides myself, Lori Gravley will be a guest at Naysan McIlhargey's studio.

If you come out for the Studio Tour, here are some other art exhibits you might enjoy:

Uncommon Threads IV: In the Glen: The Miami Valley Art Quilt Network has on display art quilts made by their members. The exhibit is at the Glen Helen Building, 405 Corry St., and is open this weekend from 10 am-4 pm. The show runs through the end of October.
- Lori and I are both members of this group, I have one piece included and she has several.

Dare 2B Square: The Village Artisans is sponsoring this show of artwork that is 12" x 12". The exhibit is at the Village Artisans, 100 Corry St. and is open this weekend Sat. 11 am-6 pm and Sun. noon-5 pm. The show runs through the end of October.
- There are several types of media represented in this show, but I think my piece is the only fiber art in the show.

Out of My Box: An Exhibition of Extreme Quilting will be at the Yellow Springs Arts Council Gallery and will feature the work of multimedia artist Karen Russell and folk artist Sharon Mohler. The gallery is located at 309 Xenia Ave., and will be open Sat. from noon-4 pm.

Stitch Gasp, a one-woman show featuring stitched art and paintings by Corrine Bayraktaroglu will be at Would You, Could You...In a Frame and is open this Sat. 10 am-6 pm.

If you come to Yellow Springs a little early...

There are several art events happening on Fri., Oct. 15 during the Third Friday Art Stroll. Artist receptions for Dare 2B Square, Out of My Box, and Stitch Gasp will all be held from 6-9 pm.

Yellow Springs Artist Studio Tour: Meet my guest artists

The Yellow Springs Artist Studio Tour is this coming weekend...Sat., Oct. 16 and Sun. Oct. 17, from 11 am-6 pm both days. This is my third year participating on the tour, and this is the 10th tour so we've decided to do something a little different this year...guest artists! Each of the 8 host artists will have some guest artist in their studio.

My first guest is Theresa Mayer. Theresa lives in Yellow Springs and works with glass. She makes lampwork beads that can be worn as necklaces or used to embellish other projects. Above is a photo of the first pair of beads that I bought from Theresa...I liked them because they looked like a tiny universe. She also makes beads with tiny landscapes on them.

She says, "I began to play with glass when I took some traditional stained glass classes. Then I got a mini kiln and became enthralled with fusing. One day just for fun I signed up for a lampworking bead making class at the Springfield Art Museum. I became addicted to taking rods of glass and melting them in front of my eyes and turning them in to beads. As I began with my first nearly beads I struggled to get shape and form. As practice made that come more naturally I have discovered that I could express feelings and emotions in the beads. What I find the most fun is that different people see different things in them, so the adventure begins with the viewer and their imagination."

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My other guest is J. Austin Jennings, who lives in Kettering. She is a painter and has been exploring mixed media by incorporating a collage technique in her paintings. At left is "Less Traveled" which I own.

She says, "Creating art is a process of ‘seek and hide.’ I sort through life, selecting scenes, looking for secrets, and pursuing the oft-overlooked ironies of the natural world. In the studio the seeking continues. I search out colors, textures, value tones and fascinating images. Cut paper, shards of printed material lay scattered across the worktable. The pieces reassemble themselves to form a new whole in a process I like to compare to alchemy...a transmutation of small, ordinary scraps into a more profound whole. Then the viewer becomes the seeker—finding secrets I myself have hidden."