Hi.
Welcome to the VORTEX
Welcome to the VORTEX
October 8, 9, 10According to tour chair Pamela Grau, the full three-day tour is seventy-three OSA member artists (some double-up). You would have to get to three studios per hour to see them all, an impossibility. You should, however, make sure to take advantage of this annual opportunity. I’ve been to a lot of neighborhood and city-wide open studios, and I can tell you: this one is special. So I want to help you. I spent an inordinate amount of time concocting an intricate system weighing several factors, including overall affability, art awesomeness, and my own level of personal house envy. Convenience has factored in as well. So have cats, obviously. These five tour stops are a very manageable Saturday afternoon’s worth of art viewing. You’re on your own for Sunday and Monday.
The weirdest, wildest studio, the most fabulous home, and maybe the best lady on the whole tour; Sylvia Raz is an actual treasure. “Clay, stone, assemblage using found objects, knitting, bronze, it all comes together to imply an intimate relationship with life and a feminist point of view, compatible with the humor and lightness of heart she wants to express.”
Check her out:
So, technically this makes it a ‘top 7.’ The Amends are a family showing in a compound of two homes just past downtown. Richard Amend is a painter who just scored a residency in Taft Garden’s Art in Nature program for 2023. Susan Stinsmuehelen Amend works with glass and is currently finalizing a commission for the Catholic Church in Meiners Oaks: the stations of the cross from Christ’s POV. Their son, Wyatt Amend, is a brilliant ceramicist.
The word on Christopher Noxon long before I met him when he joined OSA was that “he’s a good time.” Formerly a writer and illustrator, he moved to Ojai and dove deep into painting, getting gallingly good at it rather too quickly. He creates big, bright, beautiful landscapes that capture the magic of Ojai. “Spirit of Place – that’s the best way to describe what I try to convey, the calm/energized/teary-eyed feeling you get here.” His East End studio — a quick drive from Sylvia’s — is gorgeous, a bright, airy barn with beautiful views. He recently appeared on Bret Bradigan’s Ojai Talk of the Town podcast.
Mary Neville is the real deal, and her process of creating enormous abstract paintings is fascinating: “I have always been interested in emotions and feelings and am inspired by other people’s hidden layers. The skeletons in the closet. What can’t be expressed out loud. Experiences that are kept buried deep inside, even from ourselves. Engaging in the process of painting is to unearth and record my unspoken thoughts as a tactile representation of understanding life.” She’s also really fun, she studio is bonkers, and her cat is a love.
Ted Gall is an OSA Tour favorite. His studio is in an airplane hangar tucked behind a lush garden of cactus and fruit trees. It’s full of magic: wax molds and tiny mechanical parts. His primary medium is metal, bronze, and such. “Although his work has not been limited to the human form, it has been his primary focus throughout his career.”
He’s right up the road from me, Jules Weissman. So if you have extra energy, stop and say hi. I have a handful of inexpensive pieces currently being framed at Shop Summer Camp. I’ll have copies of a local poet’s book that I’m publishing. I’m open Saturday and Sunday.
REGISTER ON EVENTBRITE FOR THE ACTUAL MAPS
This was really hard to narrow down, you guys. There is art oozing out of every corner of this valley. Not all the artists are members of the Ojai Studio Artists, but all of the Ojai Studio Artists are fan-freaking-tastic.
If I get time, I’ll add to the slideshow (this thing is closing in fast), but it should get you started. Please, go to the Ojai Valley Museum, see the show in person (the works are different from those here, for the most part), and plan your route.
