Audubon-Level Technicality Doesn’t Always Fly
Sometimes a little serendipity gets mixed in with Simone Wood’s watercolors. The artist, who likes to fill “down time” with brushstrokes, often creates impromptu…
The Orders Stacked Up After Unit Blocks Came Back into Vogue
Pepi Acebo thought he might become a minister. The former Warren Wilson student spent a few years working at Unitarian Universalist retreats, including a…
Frames Aren’t Always Happy Playing a Supporting Role
Long known for putting frames around paintings, John Horrocks discovered he’s good at making assemblage art out of the material’s remnant mouldings. The look…
When Even Making Art for David Bowie Doesn’t Scratch the Itch …
Rand Kramer’s professional career got an unexpected early start. One day, during high school, a teacher asked him to draw a history-related mural on…
Sometimes a Painter Has to be Quiet to Make a Scene
Landscape painter Kate Thayer doesn’t just recognize earth tones. “All colors are in nature if we really see,” she says. But that kind of…
This is the Best Argument Yet for that End-of-the-Rainbow Myth
Many assume gold comes from within the earth. But the truth, supported by science, is way more cosmic. Jewelry artist David Vrooman says gold…
Fast-Thinking Woodturner Wasn’t Cut Out for the Stone Age
Sixteen years ago, Darrell Copeland witnessed a woodturning demonstration. Prior to that, he had studied drawing at New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts, apprenticed…
If it Can’t Be Hand Built, it’s Not on this Potter’s Horizon
Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, wasn’t particularly known for its art department. But it happened to have a great ceramics professor when Matt Jones…
Their Romantic Summer Session Blended into a Lifetime of Artmaking
As a child, Jim Ostlund loved illustrations by 19th-century artists and would spend hours copying their work. “I remember feeling frustrated because … without…
Jewelry Designer’s Pioneer Story is a Limited-Edition Gem
Paula Dawkins does 99 percent of her jewelry-design work on a computer. But the first idea is always a drawing, to be found somewhere…