Mike & JT's Whirlwind Adventure - Part Two

Mike Frankel, President of the Artists Coalition of Flagstaff, and JT Tannous, Executive Director of Flagstaff Cultural Partners, visited 21 artist studios in 7 hours during Flagstaff Open Studios. Click here to read Part One of JT's blog on the experience. Keep reading for Part Two.

Every month here in Flagstaff, we are fortunate enough to get to head downtown to experience First Friday ArtWalk. ArtWalk here is a lot like a community block party, but with lots of good art. So when Mike and I headed into the Downtown portion of our epic Open Studios adventure, I was already familiar with some of the locations and artists we'd be visiting. That didn't make the trip any less worthwhile.

We began with a stop at Karen McClanahan's studio on Dale Street. Karen has a knack for balancing color in very compelling ways. Her work was featured in a three-artist exhibition at the Coconino Center for the Arts in January 2008.

She also creates miniatures of her paintings by hand. The piece to the right is approximately 24" x 36" - Karen recreates a work like that in a smaller format, about 4"x4" (all by hand, which takes immeasurable skill), for two purposes. One, it helps her remember the work she has created even after it is shipped off to the gallery in Denver where she is represented. And two, it gives her smaller, more affordable pieces to sell. In fact, she's been creating painted cigar boxes, greeting cards and other smaller items to sell, because she's aware of economy (aren't we all?) and wants to give folks an opportunity to purchase more affordable artwork from her.

Mike and I hopped up two streets to visit Mary B. Carter. I was struck by some of the items in her front yard right away. She had a concrete mailbox holder designed to look like a whale, and three flower pots stacked on top of each other in an impossible way. Welcome to the creative world of the artist. It's not just about making art, it's about creativity around your home, your workspace, your life.

Mary is a photographer and creates nature collages. Her space was small, but filled, floor to ceiling, with her work.

One more stop before Mike and I hit the heart of downtown, we visited four artists showing at studio #19 on the Open Studios guide: Sondra Francis (fused glass), Linda Russell (landscape paintings), Beverly Anne Smith (watercolor, acrylic and oil paintings) and Ann Rice (ceramics). This was an excellent mix of artists in one location. The studio was full of patrons when we arrived. I think if I were giving out advice to artists for how to do Open Studios, I'd tell them to host three or four artists of completely different styles in one location. These "mixed" studios had the largest crowds we found throughout the day. The photo here shows some of Sondra Francis' fused glass work.

Heading down from Cherry Street, our next destination was a cluster of three studios on San Francisco Street downtown. While we were concerned with art and artists, we knew the real challenge that lay ahead of us was finding a parking spot somewhere in the vicinity of our desired destination. This is where Mike's skill and genuine Flagstaff cunning came into play. As he maneuvered in and out of the grid of downtown, I wondered aloud "Where on earth are you going?" Mike said he knew exactly where he was going, as he pulled into an alleyway, stopped to wave and say hello to a couple of cute gals on the street (while waiting for someone to pull out of a parking spot), and then pulled into a spot less than half a block from the studios we were visiting. The man has talent.

One of things I love about our downtown is the balance between the beauty of the buildings and public spaces like Heritage Square, set against the hidden alleyways where you see the behind-the-scenes workings of the businesses that make downtown what it is. And you can see all kinds of oddities, like this photo of a bikinied storm trooper I shot in the alley.

We visited Echo Canyon Gallery, where four artists were showing: Jay Showers (photography), Kenneth Hamilton (photography), Judi Hartman (glass), and Julie Knowles (ceramics). These four really had it going the right way - both Judi and Julie were demonstrating aspects of their creative process, so patrons got "the inside look" at part of what they have to do in order to create such beautiful pieces. Julie (pictured at right) creates ceramic plates, bowls, and lamps, with a very refined and finished look. High quality work. It was neat to see how she carves designs into her pottery.

Judi Hartman is just plain talented. And people know it. Of every artist we visited Saturday, Judi was the one who had the largest ongoing crowd of folks listening to her talk as she showed how she creates her fused, stained, etched glass works. Let's pause the narrative for a minute and just go with visuals:







The photos are: Judi with Mike Frankel my traveling buddy (top), some of Judi's glasswork (middle) and a crowd listening to Judi describe her creative process (bottom).

We hopped across San Francisco to visit Mike's own stomping grounds (and the jewel of his heart), the Artists Coalition of Flagstaff's very own gallery. Here, Robert Zappanti (paintings) and Robert Cooper (photography), were showing. Zappanti (pictured at right) creates some of the most colorful paintings you'll ever see. His work has been juried into a few shows at the Center, too. Robert Cooper is a landscape photographer - one of his photos featured an old bridge that was falling apart across a beautiful desert landscape. I encouraged him to enter that for consideration in the upcoming Landscape Interrupted exhibition.

Downstairs from the ACF Gallery we found Lyn Matthews studio. Lyn creates bright floral and landscape paintings. Sadly, she had stepped out for a short break when we came to visit. With her was Susan Paige, who creates jewelry and mixed media art.

Our final stop in the downtown area was on Santa Fe Street, just to the west of downtown. Mike expressed sadness that we had to vacate our amazing parking spot without using our full 2 hours of time. It felt like dumping out a half gallon of water on the street instead of using it to water a plant. If only someone were nearby that we could have gifted the spot to. Oh well, I'm sure it went to a worthy individual. But we'll never know.

At Santa Fe, there were five artists displaying work: Kathryn Willis (oil painting), Jan Zoucha (oil painting), Beau Drumwright (tiled lamps), Rise Klassen (oil painting) and Giovanina Bucci (oil painting, acrylic on wine glasses). Another very well-attended location, it felt like a craft fair atmosphere. Giovanini (great name! she's in the picture at right) and Beau were outside under the tent. A little drizzle of rain started coming down and it felt great!

Inside we found Rise, who later on told Mike that she sold several of her paintings at Open Studios, more than in one setting ever before. That's the kind of thing both Mike and I love to hear. It keeps us raving for weeks about how great the event was, which is completely honest. What can I say? We both love doing this.

I'm going to show you just a few more photos (below) to bring this "Part Two" of the Whirlwind Adventure to an end for now. Believe it or not, we weren't even close to done yet. We visited 8 more studios before we were done. Check back Saturday for Part Three... in our next episode, there will be "shocking" developments...

Mary B. Carter in front of her work.

Beau Drumwright's lamps were a huge hit with patrons.

Susan Paige located at Lyn Matthews' studio.

Beverly Anne Smith in front of her work at studio #19.


Jan Zoucha in front of her oil paintings.


In progress: a Robert Zappanti original.


Sondra Francis with a gallery of her work.

Check back Wednesday for Part 3 of Mike & JT's Whirlwind Adventure. Update: we've had some web server problems, the blog won't be updated until Saturday. Check back then!