TL;DR quick report: artist studio tour was a huge success. Even the weather turned out just fine.
Slowly, I’m starting to see light at the end of the busy-busy-busy tunnel of organizing and participating in the 6th Annual Historic Kenwood Artist Enclave Studio Tour. It happened March 18 & 19 – and almost 3 weeks later, I’m still tackling quite a few post-event tasks.
At least I got my house and art back in order. And soon I’ll be caught up on all that has fallen by the wayside over the last few months of organizing the big event.
But as I get back to things, I’ll have to allow space for a new creative endeavor, which I consider a breakthrough in my creative work. I’d been wanting to try this for a while. And then during the 2 weeks before the tour, I got started in earnest and had some exciting discoveries and realizations and a totally new way to connect and create with my photography and share more unique and to some probably more interesting work.
The new art I’m making are wood transfers of my photographs. As I was trying and feeling out different methods and images, I’ve learned a lot about the process (and fell in love with it) and figured out two directions I want to pursue:
- color photos of street art and urbex imagery on upcycled wood fence planks
- black & white photos of cemetery statues on new wood painting panels
I’ll probably publish a more detailed blog post about the process.
Now back to reporting about the 6th Annual Historic Kenwood Artist Studio Tour that took place March 18 & 19. It’s a 2-day event throughout our neighborhood of Historic Kenwood. This year 34 artists exhibited and/or performed at 20 different studios / homes / businesses – with almost 1,000 people in attendance!
This is the 2nd year in a row I oversaw the event. Of course, there were other people helping make it happen, mainly D YaeL Kelley, Paul Barrera, and Scott Solary. Just less this year than last, due to unforeseen circumstances.
Being so focused on managing the entire event for everyone, left less time to focus on getting my home and outdoor studio and art ready. But Scott and I planned well ahead of time. We began sprucing up everything in February. Scott was a true partner in making all of this happen. He’s even the one who designed the new feather flags we had in front of every studio this year. Actually, he designed 6 different options a group of us voted on. He also painted the deck and all our staircases and got rid of most of the horrible pile of wood garbage we got from Chip Drop (instead of the mulch we got the previous time). So we bought different mulch, and I mulched and mulched and planted and pruned and watered and watered and watered. And we will never use Chip Drop again.
Thursday before the official studio tour, we had our artists-only private tour of most of the studios (with a 10-minute stop at each location) and a little after-party at Dwayne’s home. It’s one of my favorite days of the year.
Friday night, I was up until 1:30 am putting varnish on the last wood transfers.
Saturday, there was a threat of rain, so most of my photography intended for indoors, was hanging indoors and under a tent connected to our kitchen door.
Fortunately, a lot of my work is already intended for the outdoors. So throughout the yard, I could display MetalPrints and the Vast Vinyl Prints (how I’m calling the extra-large vinyl banner photos). Even better: it ended up not raining and turned out to be warm enough for a summer dress…
… and, more importantly, a perfect atmosphere for the neighborhood jazz trio, Blue Island Group, to play 2 sets on our back patio.
Sunday ended up dry as well, but much cooler: sweater weather! With no threat of rain, I could put everything outside…
… except for the Moving Still video frames, which we kept in the kitchen.
Since it didn’t rain, visual guest artist Letisia Cruz was able to set up her pop-up tent and art…
… and singer-songwriter Deb Ruby played on the patio.
Finally, after all the visitors left, some of the other artists and partners came and we enjoyed pizza, drinks, and eventually a very, very smoky backyard bonfire. It seemed like all the artists and visitors had a great time. Yes, things can always be bigger, better, smoother… But for now: all the work, the worry, the breathlessness and sleeplessness had paid off – and everyone seemed happy. Ahhh what a weekend!
As mentioned, I’m quite exhausted still and not even done with all the work. But I’m also very proud of the accomplishment and full of joy for all that happened. Having a whole conglomerate of artist enclave members display and perform in my yard was one of many highlights.
Of course, I loved talking about the art. And getting compliments about my photography went just as far as compliments about my yard (after all, that’s our art, too). A garden highlight was showing the chrysalis of the cloudless sulphur (and the caterpillar and the extra fluttery butterfly) to so many astonished people.
It was such a pleasure to chat with old and new friends – and to meet many new people from the neighborhood and from afar. I was especially stoked about my friend Margaret Baker coming all the way from Orlando with her family. We met when I was a foreign exchange student in 1988 in Orlando. We reconnected online and via Patreon – and didn’t get to see each other in person again until last year. She’s an outstanding artist and I’m learning a lot from her – and I’d like to believe we keep each other inspired and motivated.
And yes, I also sold a lot of art. I didn’t sell any Moving Stills, which will remain a goal. But cool people purchased most of my Wood Transfers and one of the three Vast Vinyl Prints and lots of metal, glicée, and photo paper prints.
All of this wouldn’t have gone as smoothly or been as great of an event, if it wasn’t for the volunteers who helped with the day-of tasks and all who helped promote it. Sending a big thanks to all of them.
I’m especially grateful to Kaleena, Sudsy, and Anne Wade for being greeters at my home – and to Mo and Mark for hosting and wrangling WhiskeyDog.
And of course, I’m super grateful to Scott, YaeL, and Paul for everything they did in helping organize the 2023 Historic Kenwood Artist Enclave Studio Tour.
Also, Paola Nesmith, thank you for being you and making me smile and laugh and keep going.
Photos in the blog post by Scott Solary, Cole Brungart, Christopher Rich, and myself.
This article (with even more detail) was originally published one week prior on my Patreon page.
To see more, check out the official 2023 Artist Studio Tour Photos page.