ArtJones – a self-guided open studio tour and sale, December 1, 10am-5pm and December 2, 11am-4pm. Seventeen artists. Fifteen open studios. Original fine art and artists that may surprise you. Paintings. Sculpture. Ceramics, Glass. Fiber art. Mosaics. Mixed media.
Tour map and artist information on www.artjonesstudiotour.com.
Ten Facts About ArtJones Artists. And One Lie.*
- The Italian police chased Tom Pitzen through the streets of Rome. To escape, he ran through the Trevi Fountain and the streets of Rome. Naked.
- Actor Mandy Patinkin owns a fiber portrait of his Inigo Montoya character from The Princess Bride, created by fiber artist Dawn Waters.
- Glass artist Doug Merritt has had work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Philadelphia Museum of Art and many other renowned museums.
- Twice a year, Irina Lapin creates a new body of work while living in Belgium.
- Designer Wendy Ohlendorf was named “Portland’s Best Emerging Designer” in 2014 and the “People’s Choice Best Female Designer” in 2015 by Portland Fashion And Style Awards.
- A bank executive commissioned Crea Egan to go to Egypt to research what the Goddess of Love would look like, and come back and build it. She did it in cast bronze in the foundry she helped create.
- Larry Busby worked as a nude model for university drawing classes. He met his first photography teacher in one of these classes.
- Samantha Roberts helps breast cancer survivors by creating hyper-realistic reconstructive or decorative tattoos in place of post mastectomy scars.
- Brenda McMahon quit her job as a journalist to go cross-country in search of her life’s purpose. She didn’t find it, and took a pottery class while working temp jobs. She’s been a full-time potter ever since.
- Nancy Poucher creates many of her pastel paintings in her hammock.
- Ray Domingo was born under an Asian berry tree as his family fled Japanese bombs in Manila. And, this artist and designer is color blind.
Free and family-friendly. Many of the studios are in the artists’ homes in Gulfport, just south of St. Petersburg. New this year, get your Art Passport stamped by each studio and you may win an original work from an ArtJones artist.
Other artists on the tour are: Jane Bunker, Dorian Angello, Rob Tillberg, Bill Brewer, Angus Macaulay, and Monika Watson.
*The lie: Larry Busby was a nude model for university drawing classes. He met his first photography teacher in one of these classes. He was never a nude model, but he is a very fine photographer.