Someday, Madisonians will eagerly await OAS posting its line-up of artists online. They’ll flock to the site to see who’s participating and to plan out their route to visit as many artists as possible. And the studios tour will attract art aficionados and novices alike—just as the Wisconsin Film Festival appeals to film buffs and the casual movie watcher, says Hardin, this year’s coordinator of the all-volunteer event.
While OAS is in its sixth year—it takes place Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with an exhibition at Overture Center running through October 10—it has a ways to go before reaching this level of buzz, Hardin admits. But she believes it can happen, especially as more people learn about the event and check it out.
This year, 136 artists will showcase art ranging from paintings to pottery, jewelry to glasswork. Because the event is not juried, there are no limits to what the artists can feature. “They can show anything they want,” Hardin says.
The tour affords opportunities to see a wide variety of art, see where the work is created and talk with the artists. Some studios also have activities for visitors.
Visit maoas.com for an artists directory and tour map, Hardin suggests. You may be surprised at how close to home art is being created. “You can go to one or two studios in your neighborhood,” she says. “It’s fascinating because you never would think your neighbor does this.”
And here’s an introduction to four artists participating this year:
Why are you participating in Open Art Studios?
The Open Studios creates an opportunity for individuals to meet, talk to and learn about the artists who share their community. I participate in the Open Art Studios to give the Madison community a chance to come in and see how and where I do my creative work. I enjoy having the opportunity to talk about my art with people who are interested enough in it to make the effort to come to my studio. By dedicating one weekend a year to opening the doors of my studio I can share my art and my work space with those who follow my art, and introduce myself as an artist to those who don't know me yet. It also guarantees that I will clean my studio at least once a year.
I have participated in the Open Art Studios every year since they started except for one year when I was teaching art workshops in Alaska.
Tell me about your art.
While I work in a number of mediums the artworks I am best know for are highly rendered, often large scale, representational watercolors with narrative themes. My work often draws on subjects associated with women or the environment or both.
What are three words you’d use to describe your work?
Beautiful, layered, meaningful.
What inspires you?
I am inspired by the creative work of the artists who were not recognized as such, but whose art surrounded me as I grew up in rural Wisconsin: quilters, lace makers, gardeners and other people who made art for daily use. I am also inspired by the natural world and the search to understand ourselves as a part of nature, realizing that what we do to it we do to ourselves and vice versa.
Part of open studios is giving the public a glimpse of the art-making process. What do people commonly misunderstand about your art?
Sometimes people think my quilt paintings are photographs of quilts I've made. I also think some people think of art in general as entertainment while I understand it as representing important intellectual and creative thinking about everything we value in the world represented visually.
What do you hope people get from meeting you or seeing your work?
I hope people come away from experiencing my art and talking to me with several possible reactions. I hope my art gives the viewer a place to pause in deep pleasure for a long time; I hope it makes them stop and reconsider what surrounds them every day through new eyes; I hope they understand art making as an important contribution to our culture and I hope it makes them want to make a larger place in their own lives for the creative process.
Cate Loughran
The Open Studios creates an opportunity for individuals to meet, talk to and learn about the artists who share their community. I participate in the Open Art Studios to give the Madison community a chance to come in and see how and where I do my creative work. I enjoy having the opportunity to talk about my art with people who are interested enough in it to make the effort to come to my studio. By dedicating one weekend a year to opening the doors of my studio I can share my art and my work space with those who follow my art, and introduce myself as an artist to those who don't know me yet. It also guarantees that I will clean my studio at least once a year.
I have participated in the Open Art Studios every year since they started except for one year when I was teaching art workshops in Alaska.
Tell me about your art.
While I work in a number of mediums the artworks I am best know for are highly rendered, often large scale, representational watercolors with narrative themes. My work often draws on subjects associated with women or the environment or both.
What are three words you’d use to describe your work?
Beautiful, layered, meaningful.
What inspires you?
I am inspired by the creative work of the artists who were not recognized as such, but whose art surrounded me as I grew up in rural Wisconsin: quilters, lace makers, gardeners and other people who made art for daily use. I am also inspired by the natural world and the search to understand ourselves as a part of nature, realizing that what we do to it we do to ourselves and vice versa.
Part of open studios is giving the public a glimpse of the art-making process. What do people commonly misunderstand about your art?
Sometimes people think my quilt paintings are photographs of quilts I've made. I also think some people think of art in general as entertainment while I understand it as representing important intellectual and creative thinking about everything we value in the world represented visually.
What do you hope people get from meeting you or seeing your work?
I hope people come away from experiencing my art and talking to me with several possible reactions. I hope my art gives the viewer a place to pause in deep pleasure for a long time; I hope it makes them stop and reconsider what surrounds them every day through new eyes; I hope they understand art making as an important contribution to our culture and I hope it makes them want to make a larger place in their own lives for the creative process.
Cate Loughran
Why are you participating in Open Art Studios?
I am the person who originally brought Open Studios to Madison. I lived in California for eleven years, until 2001. In California Open Studios is a way of life. From San Francisco, to the Sierras, to Napa Valley they are established and very popular. I simply created a structure that fit the Midwest and began talking to people about the idea. This was in 2003. Now it is n popular annual art event. This makes me proud. I am participating because I want to use this forum to show the public my new body of art.
Tell me about your art.
I consider myself a visionary. I view my artwork as inspiring, uplifting, and peaceful. I work with nature, both mother nature and the human nature. I paint, photograph, draw and most of the time work in the world of mixed media. I like the freedom to use whatever techniques necessary to create the most perfect image. I like the freedom to work with landscape and portraiture and floral and any other genre I wish.
Generally my process is collecting images, which include my photographs, drawings, paintings, and others as well. An idea strikes me, somehow... I then proceed to find the images that will best illustrate the idea. This part of the process is something like making a collage, but with the computer, via Photoshop. I have used up eleven photographs in one image; sometimes I use one. After I refine the image, I print it on cotton paper, usually Arches hot press watercolor paper. I then go into the piece with soft pastel, sometimes watercolor and even glitter. I spend sometimes days working the image after the print stage. This makes the image one of a kind, even though there is a printing process involved.
What are three words you’d use to describe your work?
Illuminated Realism is a term I coined to describe my work. Sometimes simply beautiful, other times metaphysical, always reverent to nature and the human condition. There is a surrealistic edge to my work, but my message is always straightforward.
What inspires you?
Nature, both human and mother nature, inspires me.
Part of open studios is giving the public a glimpse of the art-making process. What do people commonly misunderstand about your art?
People sometimes don't realize they too can be artists...
What do you hope people get from meeting you or seeing your work?
I want people to feel lighter, more hopeful about life. I want my work to inspire optimism this.
Karen Calkins Ragus
I am the person who originally brought Open Studios to Madison. I lived in California for eleven years, until 2001. In California Open Studios is a way of life. From San Francisco, to the Sierras, to Napa Valley they are established and very popular. I simply created a structure that fit the Midwest and began talking to people about the idea. This was in 2003. Now it is n popular annual art event. This makes me proud. I am participating because I want to use this forum to show the public my new body of art.
Tell me about your art.
I consider myself a visionary. I view my artwork as inspiring, uplifting, and peaceful. I work with nature, both mother nature and the human nature. I paint, photograph, draw and most of the time work in the world of mixed media. I like the freedom to use whatever techniques necessary to create the most perfect image. I like the freedom to work with landscape and portraiture and floral and any other genre I wish.
Generally my process is collecting images, which include my photographs, drawings, paintings, and others as well. An idea strikes me, somehow... I then proceed to find the images that will best illustrate the idea. This part of the process is something like making a collage, but with the computer, via Photoshop. I have used up eleven photographs in one image; sometimes I use one. After I refine the image, I print it on cotton paper, usually Arches hot press watercolor paper. I then go into the piece with soft pastel, sometimes watercolor and even glitter. I spend sometimes days working the image after the print stage. This makes the image one of a kind, even though there is a printing process involved.
What are three words you’d use to describe your work?
Illuminated Realism is a term I coined to describe my work. Sometimes simply beautiful, other times metaphysical, always reverent to nature and the human condition. There is a surrealistic edge to my work, but my message is always straightforward.
What inspires you?
Nature, both human and mother nature, inspires me.
Part of open studios is giving the public a glimpse of the art-making process. What do people commonly misunderstand about your art?
People sometimes don't realize they too can be artists...
What do you hope people get from meeting you or seeing your work?
I want people to feel lighter, more hopeful about life. I want my work to inspire optimism this.
Karen Calkins Ragus
Why are you participating in Open Art Studios?
I am participating in the MOAS because I think it is important for the public to see how art is made and what the artist goes through to do it. There are hundreds of decisions that an artist makes to complete a work of art.
I have been part of the MPAS before. I was in the first two shows and I participated last year.
Tell me about your art.
I would say that I am an abstract painter and print maker. I work in water media for the paintings and oil inks for the printmaking. I am unlimited in size for the paintings but my etching press limits the size of my prints.
What are three words you’d use to describe your work?
The three words that describe my work are … abstract, mysterious and exciting.
What inspires you?
Shape, line, texture, color and all the elements of design inspire me … not objects, except for the human figure.
Part of open studios is giving the public a glimpse of the art-making process. What do people commonly misunderstand about your art?
There is no accounting for any one’s taste in art or anything else for that matter. The person who might say, “Oh, I could do that” isn't the person who would like my work. For the most part, the average person doesn’t know how the artist gets to abstract. The artist first takes a long road through representational work.
What do you hope people get from meeting you or seeing your work?
I want people to have an experience you can’t get from a book or the media. “Open your eyes and your mind and see what you are not used to.”
Nick Wroblewski
I am participating in the MOAS because I think it is important for the public to see how art is made and what the artist goes through to do it. There are hundreds of decisions that an artist makes to complete a work of art.
I have been part of the MPAS before. I was in the first two shows and I participated last year.
Tell me about your art.
I would say that I am an abstract painter and print maker. I work in water media for the paintings and oil inks for the printmaking. I am unlimited in size for the paintings but my etching press limits the size of my prints.
What are three words you’d use to describe your work?
The three words that describe my work are … abstract, mysterious and exciting.
What inspires you?
Shape, line, texture, color and all the elements of design inspire me … not objects, except for the human figure.
Part of open studios is giving the public a glimpse of the art-making process. What do people commonly misunderstand about your art?
There is no accounting for any one’s taste in art or anything else for that matter. The person who might say, “Oh, I could do that” isn't the person who would like my work. For the most part, the average person doesn’t know how the artist gets to abstract. The artist first takes a long road through representational work.
What do you hope people get from meeting you or seeing your work?
I want people to have an experience you can’t get from a book or the media. “Open your eyes and your mind and see what you are not used to.”
Nick Wroblewski
Why are you participating in Open Art Studios?
I am participating in the Open Art Studios because I am new to the Madison area, recently moved here from Minneapolis. This will be my first time. I am quite excited to show my space and work because I have expanded my operation to a larger studio space, including a 40” x 72” printing press, large drying rack, ink brayers, etc. It is my way of introducing myself and my artwork to Madison.
Tell me about your art.
I make woodcut block prints. The images are usually inspired by the natural world, presently I am very interested in the larger dynamics of nature such as the ways the hydrological cycle churns, the ways that animals move, migrate, and reproduce. I am drawn to forms that express movement in nature: the way a landscape possesses a “gesture” or a stark horizon line defines sky and earth. My prints are multi-colored, large-scale images that contain plants, animals, and landscapes.
What are three words you’d use to describe your work?
I would describe my work in three words as dynamic, vibrant and organic.
What inspires you?
I am inspired by the gradation of the sky during a setting sun. By the way lines of woodgrain mirror the subtle wisps of cirrus clouds. By the way the forces of nature absorb water, purify it, and release it back. By the way the moon draws water not only through the tides but also through the ground and up to the tips of plants. I am also inspired by how nature solves the most complex of problems in the most elegantly simple ways. I am not inspired by the net result (chain stores) of capitalism. One would get the sense driving across America that creativity and imagination have all but dried up. What is so mind-blowing about a Cabela's Super Store? How about the arial dynamics of a hummingbird?
Part of open studios is giving the public a glimpse of the art-making process. What do people commonly misunderstand about your art?
The process that I use to make my prints is sometimes hard to grasp. I generally print the final piece from two blocks of wood. One block is the background (negative space) and the other is the foreground (positive). I also print each color individually from light to dark. I am able to print more than two colors from two blocks because I use a technique called “reduction.” In a reduction print, one carves away the area that was previously printed that is to remain the last printed color. All the texture that is left is then inked and printed on top of the last color and so on down the line until most of the block is carved away. This concept of carving away what you want to keep usually is one of the crazier concepts to grasp when describing my technique. One also has to be very familiar with seeing the negative space around an object as opposed to the object itself.
What do you hope people get from meeting you or seeing your work?
I hope folks who come by the studio are able to get a sense of how a multi-block woodcut is made. They will be able to see the tools, the rollers, and the press and to hopefully see examples of the blocks that were used to make a specific image. Also, I really hope that viewers can see my work and get a sense of the whole, i.e the “spirit” of animals interacting, the "gesture" of a landscape, or the simple beauty of color as a way to define space.
I am participating in the Open Art Studios because I am new to the Madison area, recently moved here from Minneapolis. This will be my first time. I am quite excited to show my space and work because I have expanded my operation to a larger studio space, including a 40” x 72” printing press, large drying rack, ink brayers, etc. It is my way of introducing myself and my artwork to Madison.
Tell me about your art.
I make woodcut block prints. The images are usually inspired by the natural world, presently I am very interested in the larger dynamics of nature such as the ways the hydrological cycle churns, the ways that animals move, migrate, and reproduce. I am drawn to forms that express movement in nature: the way a landscape possesses a “gesture” or a stark horizon line defines sky and earth. My prints are multi-colored, large-scale images that contain plants, animals, and landscapes.
What are three words you’d use to describe your work?
I would describe my work in three words as dynamic, vibrant and organic.
What inspires you?
I am inspired by the gradation of the sky during a setting sun. By the way lines of woodgrain mirror the subtle wisps of cirrus clouds. By the way the forces of nature absorb water, purify it, and release it back. By the way the moon draws water not only through the tides but also through the ground and up to the tips of plants. I am also inspired by how nature solves the most complex of problems in the most elegantly simple ways. I am not inspired by the net result (chain stores) of capitalism. One would get the sense driving across America that creativity and imagination have all but dried up. What is so mind-blowing about a Cabela's Super Store? How about the arial dynamics of a hummingbird?
Part of open studios is giving the public a glimpse of the art-making process. What do people commonly misunderstand about your art?
The process that I use to make my prints is sometimes hard to grasp. I generally print the final piece from two blocks of wood. One block is the background (negative space) and the other is the foreground (positive). I also print each color individually from light to dark. I am able to print more than two colors from two blocks because I use a technique called “reduction.” In a reduction print, one carves away the area that was previously printed that is to remain the last printed color. All the texture that is left is then inked and printed on top of the last color and so on down the line until most of the block is carved away. This concept of carving away what you want to keep usually is one of the crazier concepts to grasp when describing my technique. One also has to be very familiar with seeing the negative space around an object as opposed to the object itself.
What do you hope people get from meeting you or seeing your work?
I hope folks who come by the studio are able to get a sense of how a multi-block woodcut is made. They will be able to see the tools, the rollers, and the press and to hopefully see examples of the blocks that were used to make a specific image. Also, I really hope that viewers can see my work and get a sense of the whole, i.e the “spirit” of animals interacting, the "gesture" of a landscape, or the simple beauty of color as a way to define space.
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