The power of 11
The power
of 11
Studio tour to spotlight local artists
09:54 AM CST on Sunday, October 31, 2004
The Visual Arts Society of Texas just can’t stop it with firsts.
The group recently published its first calendar, showcasing 12 member artists.
On Saturday, the society will lead art lovers through a tour of 11 local art studios, some tucked into well-lighted corners of homes and others in commercial spaces.
Ingrid Scobie, the executive director of the society, said the group took a cue from other art organizations that have sponsored studio tours all over the Dallas-Fort Worth area in its first tour.
"Studio tours are nothing new," she said. "We’ve never done one, though, and we think it would be something artists and non-artists would be interested in."
The tour takes viewers through studios of society members and non-members. Scobie said the common thread is that all of the artists are working artists, producing and selling their work. Some are longtime artists who teach on the university level, while others make their studios a full-time vocation.
A studio tour is a break from the regular schedule of exhibits, workshops and monthly meetings, but it’s most different for viewers who tour the studios.
"I think it’s fascinating to have some semblance of the process, seeing how an artist makes a work of art. But it’s also nice to actually have the artist there talking about their work and answering questions," she said.
The tour also gives local artists more exposure, and it gives artists a chance to see how their peers in another medium do their work. Millie Giles, a painter anda lecturer at the University of North Texas School of Visual Arts, uses different tools and supplies than brick sculptor Paula Blincoe Collins, both of whom have opened their studios to the tour.
The tour is self-guided, with viewers free to start wherever they please and take the course as they choose. Tourists will visit studios in Denton, Aubrey and Argyle. The tour concludes at Green Space Arts Collective, a local dance, performing arts and art studio, with a reception show and sale.
Beth Haywood, a painter who heads up the tour committee, said the tour is a way to show just how vital the visual arts are in Denton. Starting with a ceramics studio and moving through art glass, painting and sculpture, the tour is a fair representation of what Denton artists are creating, Haywood said.
"I like to think that it reflects the variety of the art available here," she said. "And within each art form, there is a variety. I also think it’s neat to see how many artists we have in Denton. We’ve got a little of everything and everybody here."
Scobie agreed, saying the tour just scratches the surface of art production in the county. Haywood said the society also hopes the tour might recruit other Denton County artists into the group.
LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877.
ADVENTURE AWAITS
What: Visual Arts Society of Texas’ first annual Art Adventure Tour of Studios
When: Tour runs from 10 a.m. to3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6. Reception show and sale are open from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7, at Green Space Arts Collective, 529 Malone St.
How much: $10
Details: Tickets are available at any tour location. For more information, go to www.VASTarts.org.
TOUR STOPS
Look for yellow balloons at each location.
Cathy Miriam Mitchell
Miriam Studios — ceramics and pottery
1512 Panhandle St., Denton
940-453-1370
Mitchell produces decorative and functional ceramics and teaches in the Denton Independent School District.
Christie A. Wood
Art Glass Ensembles — stained glass
513 Bolivar St., Denton
940-591-3002
Wood works in her own full-service stained glass studio, where she produces art glass and teaches.
Amie Adelman
home studio — fiber art
268 Robbie-O St., Denton
940-453-3420
Adelman is a professor of art in the University of North Texas School of Visual Arts.
John Adelman
home studio — drawing and sculpting
268 Robbie-O St., Denton
940-453-0572
Adelman arrived in Denton in 2003 to begin graduate studies in painting and drawing at UNT. Currently, his work uses thousands of words from the 1989 Webster’s dictionary.
Paula Blincoe Collins
home studio — brick sculpture
1223 Highland Park Road, Denton
940-383-3384
Collins’ work, which can be seen at Ryan High School and the Denton Police Department, has increasingly been called upon to grace public venues, where her artful manipulation of brick results in representational sculpture with both heft and kinetic lightness.
Rob Erdle
Greenwood Pavilion Studio — painting
1701 Greenwood Drive, Denton
940-566-2267
Erdle is a regents professor in the UNT School of Visual Arts. He uses water media in both small on-site paintings to large-scale studio landscape sites. He is a sought-after private teacher in Denton, lauded for his plein air (open air) teaching trips.
Millie Giles
Greenwood Pavilion Studio — painting
1701 Greenwood Drive, Denton
940-566-2267
Giles is a continuing lecturer at the UNT School of Visual Arts and a watercolorist who puts her personal viewpoint on the paper, catching arresting moments in her work.
George Cadell
home studio — sculpture
3416 New Hope Road, Aubrey
940-365-2908
Cadell has long documented the emotional life and symbols of Native American nations and Southwestern wildlife in striking bronze sculptures and welded steel. He is a Community Arts Recognition Award Winner, with the double honor of casting the bronze statues given to award recipients by the Greater Denton Arts Council.
John Brough Miller
home studio — sculpture
2134 Fairway Acres Drive, Argyle
940-464-7468
Miller takes the rigidity of metal and gives the illusion of movement and evolution in his sculptures.
Eric and Cheryl Hanson
Laughing Glass Art Studio — glass blowing
1099 Cedar Creek Road, Argyle
940-455-2592
The Hansens pay tribute to the old craft of glass blowing, making vases, paperweights and, they say, "other curious forms."
Beverly Sipos
home studio — painting
2481 Britt Drive, Argyle
940-464-0633
http://b_sipos.tripod.com/artwork
Sipos is an award-winning painter who has received critical nods of late with her figure work: large-scale paintings of people in motion, often done in oil but sometimes in pastel and watercolor.
Online at:
http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/entertainment/stories/DRC_The_power_of.f2e85cb.html