WHERE Women Create - Fall 2023

INSPIRING WORK SPACES OF EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN

Fall 2023 Display Until November 1, 2023

NATASHA McCRARY, P. 30

INSPIRING WORK SPACES OF EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN®

From a woman’s soul, through a woman’s eyes, by a woman’s hands.®

Design & Editorial EDITOR IN CHIEF Jennifer Blot

COPY EDITOR Kelly Walters

MANAGING EDITOR Susan Harold

MARKETING MANAGER Nancy Donovan Ganz

GRAPHIC DESIGN Wendy Dunning

CURATOR Lori Siebert

CIRCULATION/PRODUCTION Weekly Retail Service Thomas Smith Smith@WeeklyRetailService.com

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CONTENTS

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FEATURES

12 12 Paige Davidson 30 Natasha McCrary 1818 Farms

50 Marjolein Dallinga 66 Blair Stocker 100 Joanne Culbreth 132 Patricia Boinest Potter and Jesse W. Akers artXarchitectureXstudio

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DEPARTMENTS 6 WHERE It Begins

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On Our Shelves

84 Art of Business

Teresa Roche, Teresa Roche Textiles and Art & Light Gallery

116 An Artist Lives Here: Inspiration Everywhere with Lori Siebert Sam Leonard and Hacienda Mosaico

152 Pet Tales

Chiwi and Nancy Erickson Dutmer

COVER: Teresa Roche

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ON THE COVER

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WHEREIt Begins

AT WHERE WOMEN CREATE, ONE OF

our favorite things is discovering the ways artists are continuously inspired by their studio spaces, how they get creative when it comes to the challenges of limited space and surfaces to work on, and how they personalize their surroundings with their treasured belongings.

That brings us to the shelf.

In a studio, a shelf holds so many possibilities … it houses tools, is a resting place for small works-in-progress, and acts as a catchall for all those sweet mementos and trinkets that bring us joy every time we look at them.

For many years, I lived in a city in a flat with limited space. This made my love of collecting and upcycling both difficult … and easy. I loved browsing estate sales and vintage flea markets but there came a point where I was forced to come up with a rule: I could only purchase small, pocket-sized items that didn’t take up much room — namely vintage costume jewelry, antique buttons and tiny treasures.

Not long after I made this deal with myself, I found a lovely vintage carved wooden shelf hanging on the wall of an estate sale. As I was taking it down to purchase it, I noticed a small porcelain bird wired securely to it (understandable — it was earthquake country). I could only imagine how long that bird had perched there and so he came with it — the last relic of the previous owner’s shelf collection and the first of my new one.

In the years to come, the shelf became home to many of the tiny little vintage mementos, souvenirs and miniatures I rescued from sales. A few years ago, that shelf and its contents moved with me to a new state and a larger home, but I continue to cram more and more tiny treasures onto it. I take a few things off it from time to time but never leave more than two inches (max) of surface space … providing me with the thrill of finding more miniscule scores in my travels.

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Jennifer Blot, Editor in Chief

Paige Davidson, p. 12

Wendy Dunning Blair Stocker, p 66

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In addition to a snapshot of my wall shelf (don't look too closely — I'm sure there's dust!), take a peek at the shadowbox shelves of our graphic designer, Wendy Dunning, which include a trilobite from a childhood hike and the keys to her first car.

On the following pages, we hope you enjoy glimpses of the shelves of some of the artists featured in this issue — including Blair Stocker and Paige Davidson — and a collection of eclectic shelves showcased in past issues of the magazine.

We want to thank you for joining us for this fall issue of WHERE Women Create — our first under the ownership of WRS Logistics, a company with a long relationship with WHERE Women Create and WHAT Women Create magazines.

You will find a very special collection of earnest and inspirational first-person stories that highlight the creative journey, the power of friendship — and, in the case of a few of our artists, tributes to the extraordinary gift of unconditional support from Dad.

ON OUR

Shelves

PHOTO BY CURT DENNISON

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Linda Solovic / Curated by Lori Siebert

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Linda-Solovic-Studio.

Squarespace.com Instagram: LindaSolovic WHERE Women Create Fall 2022

Lisa Wine

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LisaWineStudios.com Instagram: LisaWineStudios WHERE Women Create 2020

Colleen E. Monette CEMonetteArt.com Instagram: C.E.MonetteArt WHERE Women Create Fall 2022

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PHOTO BY CHRIS VILLIERS/VILLIERSMEDIA, LLC

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Alex Sulikowski

AlexAMano.com Instagram: AlexAManoArtisan WHERE Women Create Spring 2023

Adriette Huyben / Curated by Stacy Sirk

Instagram: Goesting_Gilze WHERE Women Create Winter 2022

PHOTO BY ROLINDA WINDHORST

Kimberly McSparran

KimberlyMcSparran.com Instagram: McSparranDesign WHERE Women Create Winter 2022

PHOTO BY BOBBY ALAN

Amy Duncan

StudioFourCorners.com Instagram: StudioFourCorners WHERE Women Create Fall 2019

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PAIGE

DAVIDSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIRANDA MARRS COLLINS

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PAIGE DAVIDSON is a painter and potter whose work has been shown over the last 25 years on gallery walls — from Austin to Italy — and has been seen in television and film, but her studio life centers quietly around a 126-year-old building steeped in personal history in her small hometown of Gainesville, Texas.

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y painting studio and gallery occupy a historic building that was a dry goods store belonging to George Y. Bird, the first mayor of Gainesville, Texas. The building is covered in visible stories of its previous tenants: like the top of the arched doorway cut through the original 1800s sarsaparilla mural from when it was Bird Dry Goods; and the oil spills, automotive paint splatters and visible traffic patterns worn in the original wooden floors by my grandfather’s feet when it became his auto parts store in the 1940s.

After getting my BFA from the University of Texas, I lived in Austin, thinking I had to live in a big city to get my art career rolling, while the realities of extraordinary rent and heavy distractions were keeping me from finding my footing or focusing on paint.

I decided to move temporarily back to my quiet hometown to take a breath and regroup, and took up residence in the crusty old warehouse — with no AC, hot water or shower — that had been a shop area behind my grandfather’s business decades before.

That same warehouse had been my dad’s graphic design studio in my childhood and was where he hand-lettered signs, did logo design and screen printing. It is where I started my creative journey as a kid playing with his expensive markers, paints and typography books and watching him pull the longhaired brushes covered in 1 Shot sign paint with slow grace.

After college, pulling myself out of the noise and influences of the city and putting myself back in that familiar space, I realized almost immediately that when I gave myself room to breathe, I was able to think and had freedom to create.

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ithin a couple of years, in addition to the gallery shows I was doing, I began opening my modest little warehouse with a gravel-alley entrance as my own gallery space; printing postcard invitations on my inkjet printer and mailing them to friends and townsfolk to come see my self-curated exhibitions. Word spread and strangers started showing up and wandering through my bedroom and bathroom, so I took another big breath in 2007 and decided to renovate the building next door that had been the old parts store and create a more substantial, refined and public gallery space with a painting studio in the back.

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or the last 16 years, I’ve continued to add my own splatters and notches to that rich history as I’ve created my own space there. My giant worktable’s surface is a visible history of my childhood, scarred by decades of silk-screen inks, turpentine, X-Acto blades and holes from screwing in screens. Like the floors in the building, I wanted to preserve that family history and just sealed the surface instead of sanding it off.

The furniture and objects around me tell stories, like the Victorian English dental cabinet my antique-dealing grandfather had sold to a

client 50 years ago and that she returned to me last year to house my supplies. She just walked in one day and said, “I have something you need.” Its beautiful, shallow little wooden drawers are perfect for storing my pens, colored pencils, photo sources and tubes of color. My red striped studio chair belonged to the mother of one of my pottery mentors. The kanthacovered, mid-century studio couch is one that my antique-dealing grandmother helped her best friend pick out in the 60s.

I know she and my grandfather would’ve been right at home sitting there today drinking scotch and water and watching me paint.

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y pottery studio occupies a space at home but has a similar feel, filled with vintage handknotted rugs, a reupholstered chair that belonged to my husband’s grandmother, shelves loaded with art and treasures collected on our travels. There are vases created by the potter who taught me to throw in high school and stacks of pottery books gifted to me by my dad’s high school art teacher, who later became a good friend and mentor to me.

What might appear chaotic to others feels like comfort to me — my own sentimental nest.

Surrounding myself with spirited objects, photos, collections and stories, I feel propped up by inspiration and history.

My feline studio assistant, El Guapo Mole Santo Domingo de Guzman (aka Boppy), who we adopted last year, also spends his time in the pottery studio and gives me constant reminders to take a breath, get a snack, drink some water and stretch. He enthusiastically runs to the studio when he hears the giant industrial sliding door roll open between our kitchen and the studio, launches himself onto the middle of the big wooden worktable, usually full of fragile and drying bowls, and often leaves his collaborative prints inside a piece or two. (Those pieces are in high demand at the gallery, and everyone knows him by name.)

He gets his work done, checks the state of things and usually ends up napping with his black fur or whiskers coated in white clay in the middle of the workspace.

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“I only mark the hours that shine.” — L I T T L E E D I E BO U V I E R B E A L E

“If we can tune into the idea of making things and sharing them without being attached to the outcome, the work is more likely to arrive in its truest form.” — RICK RUBIN

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ver the last 20 years, as my business has grown and I’ve grown older, I’ve searched for more balance. I’m fortunate to be able to sell work directly to my collectors and often build close, personal relationships with them. They become like family, whereas selling through other galleries feels less personal and more high stress for an introvert like me.

Giant impersonal openings aren’t something I’ve ever been interested in. The business hat is always much more challenging for me to wear than the creative hat. The pandemic nudged us all toward self-reflection and reevaluation.

As a result, my studio practice has shifted.

Previously, I was working in the gallery and its painting studio all week, burning my candle at both ends trying to squeeze in time at the easel, terrified that if I wasn’t available to everyone

24/7 my business would crumble — or I would be forgotten. Lockdown shifted my attention to really focused studio time and opening the gallery only on weekends. I began working more at the home studio, happily isolated, uninterrupted by visitors, able to stretch my workdays longer because of schedule flexibility.

Taking a step back from gallery retail hours meant that I could spend more intense time working long days on huge canvases, or in the pottery studio working on more elaborate projects without worrying about drying schedules. I started creating exponentially more work and feeling a lot more creatively fulfilled because the momentum was continually building rather than getting broken by interruptions. To my very pleasant surprise, I began selling more work, despite being open less. The freedom I had when I started my business in the crusty warehouse returned.

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“One of the greatest things about being an artist is there is no in-between time. You are working all the time. The ‘in-between’ time is a furnace of ideas. It’s like there’s this locomotive always going and you’re on it. This is a life lived in art.” — J E R R Y S A LT Z

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’m a big believer in creative momentum. In Austin, my creative life had been stagnating and sputtering because I couldn’t give it enough time. I didn’t have a daily practice, as I do now. Because the ball is now consistently rolling, new work and opportunities are constantly presenting themselves. I always have art critic Jerry Saltz on my shoulder whispering, “Get to work, you big baby.” There’s a constant drive to pick up a drawing tool or brush. It allows me to move fluidly between the painting, drawing and pottery, and the themes and ideas crawling around overlap those mediums.

That momentum has always been more critical to my personal practice than the actual physical space. Some of my most productive times are when I pack my bag full of watercolor palettes, stacks of paper and my noise-canceling headphones — full of tunes and audiobooks — and hit the road to paint. I spend full days, sunup to past sundown, racing the sun with my brush, capturing the composition and color of the earth before the sun shifts and changes every detail.

My life’s goal, since a preschooler in my dad’s studio, was to be an artist. Creating something with my hands and living a creative, happy, colorful life is all I have ever wanted to do. I’m grateful and astounded every day I get to do it, whether it is on one of my formal painting road trips into the high desert where I end up sitting on a rock on a hiking trail with my paints, or throwing pots in the pottery studio with El Guapo, or studying light and shadow and temperature shifts on earthworms or beetles and heaps of earth and finding the magic there.

So much of my work, such as the paintings of vintage Airstream trailers, is about reflection — both literal and figurative. I’m grateful to have settled into a space that allows me to reflect on my personal history on a daily basis.

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More on Paige

www.PaigeDavidson.com Instagram: PaigeDavidsonStudio, ElGuapoTheStudioCat Facebook: PaigeDavidsonStudio

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www.MirandaMarrsBlog.com Instagram: MirandaMarrsPhoto

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More on Miranda

Through the LENS

For over a decade, MIRANDA MARRS COLLINS of Miranda Marrs Photography has devoted her career to showing the people in front of her lens just how beautiful they really are. Her official title is “owner/photographer,” but she also claims the titles of “high-five master” and “hype woman extraordinaire” as her main roles in her business.

Though she has many accolades, her greatest pride is the memories she preserves while working with her clients and capturing their most important chapters in life.

Miranda Marrs Photography’s studio and home base is near the Dallas/Fort Worth area in Texas, and she shoots weddings and portraits all over the U.S. and beyond — most recently in Germany and France. Miranda’s work has been featured in multiple print and online publications, from the Daily Mail to Time.com, but most importantly: Her work is frequently featured on her clients’ walls and homes.

When she’s not busy high-fiving and yelling compliments at the people in front of her camera, she spends her time with her husband and two boys and enjoys a good dystopian audiobook from time to time.

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Natasha McCrary

1818 FARMS Photography by Olivia Reed

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Natasha McCrary is the owner of 1818 Farms, located on three acres in

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season. Natasha has taken her love for education, flowers, animals and simple-

the northwest corner of the historic village of Mooresville, Alabama. Her farm is not only home to happy animal residents, including the rare breed of Southdown Babydoll sheep, but is also a growing space for over 15,000 flowers at peak ingredient products and created a line of beauty and lifestyle products that are available throughout the United States and, most recently, in Japan.

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my mind immediately asks the question: How can I produce a product or experience that is new and unique?

My creative spaces are broader than those of many artists.

They are unique in the fact that they are both indoor and outdoor. Our flower field and farm have become the foundation for the creativity that leads to the development of new products.

You may ask, “How is a flower field a creative space?”

Hundreds of hours go into the planning and design of my flower field, which at peak season hosts over 15,000 plants.

I look at the field as a blank canvas each season and develop numerous planting layouts that are aesthetically pleasing

planting flowers with appropriate height, textures and, most importantly, specific colors. Each row includes color blocked flower varieties so that farm visitors notice the dynamic colors of the seasonal blooms.

There is nothing more beautiful than gazing over the flower field and seeing rows of fieldplanted pink lisianthus, white gomphrena, salmon zinnias and many shades of celosia and other floral varieties. Planting by color in an impactful layout gives our visitors a “wow” moment when they first arrive at the farm and walk into the garden.

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When thinking about the word create, and balance one another. I achieve this balance by

During the summer months,

our open-air pavilion is used as a creative space for our Bloom Stroll and Bouquet Workshop participants.

This space is multipurpose and serves as an area to both design arrangements for our popular subscription bouquets and process flowers to be hung in our drying room.

The space overlooks our flower field and the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Its Edison lighting and string lights make this creative space a magical place to host events.

I enjoy sharing the creative spaces of both the garden and pavilion during workshops. Guests spend time touring my beautiful garden as I identify my favorite varieties of heirloom flowers and demonstrate the best methods for harvesting flowers when gathering them for arrangements.

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“Happiness held is the seed. Happiness shared is the flower.”

— JOHN HARRIGAN

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Following the garden tour,

participants gather at the 1818 Farms pavilion where the hands-on portion of the workshop will begin. Each participant is provided with a gorgeous selection of fresh cut flowers and herbs gathered that morning at the farm. Next, I discuss the floral elements needed to create a balanced bouquet and demonstrate the basic steps to create a stunning floral arrangement for any occasion. By sharing my creative spaces with others, I hope to inspire them to build a space that brings them joy and where they can create beauty all year long.

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“All the flowers of the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.”

— NATIVE AMERICAN PROVERB

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In 2018 I began our farm’s Zero Waste and lifestyle product line. Drying our fresh flowers

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Initiative, which resulted in a new creative space that is used daily throughout the growing season: the 1818 Farms Flower Drying Room. Over the years, I received an increase in requests for dried flower bouquets and wreaths. It was clear that the everlasting flower movement was beginning.

Since opening the farm in 2012, I had always practiced sustainability by adapting a rotational grazing plan for our Babydoll sheep and composting our produce, flowers and farm animal waste.

The Zero Waste Initiative would change the way that I thought of flowers. They would not only be used as fresh cuts but also dried and incorporated as components in our value-added bath

reduced waste and increased the growing/production season and revenue stream.

I had one room at the farm that would work perfectly for drying flowers. (The kitchen in our garden house did not have windows and isn’t climate controlled.) To successfully dry flowers, the environment should be dark, warm and dry. These attributes, along with our extremely hot summers and metal roof, create the perfect space for drying beautiful blooms.

To aid in drying, a dehumidifier is constantly running in the room to quickly remove moisture from the flowers. I jokingly refer to the drying room as the “hot box” because it easily reaches 90-plus degrees in the summer.

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Visitors always ask, “How do your dried flowers have such vibrant color?” Beautiful flower color is achieved by harvesting and drying flowers that are at their peak. The biggest mistake is people drying flowers that are past their prime. A bouquet that has been in a vase at home for five to seven days is too old to dry. Ninety-nine percent of the time flowers dried at this stage will not dry with vibrant color.

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A portion of each summer day is spent harvesting flowers from the field and bundling and hanging them in the drying room. Flower-drying time is quick during the summer months. Most varieties are fully dried in three to seven days.

Once dried, bouquets are either wrapped to sell or are taken to our corporate office where they are incorporated in our beautiful botanical wax sachets.

Our botanical wax sachets are aromatherapy for the home and perfect to freshen any household space. Scented wax sachets are created using a combination of soy and beeswax and fragrance, and beautifully decorated with dried flowers and flower confetti. No two sachets are alike, and each is a unique piece of art.

To further connect the product to the farm, each sachet comes with a conveniently attached yarn hanger that is spun from our Southdown Babydoll sheep wool. A botanical wax sachet is truly from our farm to your home.

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— VINCENT VAN GOGH

In 2022, I began pressing flowers as well.

I became intrigued with the process after discovering my father’s professional-grade flower press from the 1960s. Many of the blotter pages inside the press had handwritten notes about leaf samples taken as early as the 1970s. As a botanist, he obtained extensive knowledge from preserving and documenting leaves and flowers.

My mind began dreaming about the art and beauty that I could create by preserving our farm-grown flowers with a press versus the three-dimensional hanging method.

Pressing flowers would also expand our Zero Waste Initiative.

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“Great things are done … by a series of small things brought together.”

Finding that flower press changed the

scale of my product offerings. In 2021, I had been eco-printing textiles using fresh botanicals; but once the growing season was complete, production for the year was finished. I could only eco-print five months of the year.

The vintage press encouraged me to immediately begin pressing flowers, leaves and greenery not only for printing textiles but also for creating a line of pressed-flower art pieces, as well as resin jewelry, trays and coasters. This press that had been collecting dust in a barn for many years opened my eyes to the array of creative possibilities available from using my flowers.

As people began to see the pressed-flower artwork, I received custom order requests. I have created resin trays using both funeral and wedding flowers. The pressing process allows me to provide customers with a piece of art that holds significant meaning for a special person or day. It makes me happy to know that I can create artwork that preserves a memory for customers.

The process of growing and working with flowers — fresh, pressed, and dried — is not always easy. As a farmer, I deal with variables in the environment that I cannot control. Over the years, I have enjoyed many successful growing seasons mixed with a few failures, which I consider learning experiences.

However, at the end of each day, my goal is to provide customers with the highest quality product. Over the past 11 years, I have focused on developing creative spaces that inspire me and help achieve this goal. Sharing my spaces and knowledge with others along the way is icing on the cake.

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More on Natasha www.1818Farms.com Instagram: 1818Farms Facebook: 1818Farms

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Olivia Reed, wife to JD, mom to

David and Annie, dog mom to Razzle and Honey, friend to many and photographer.

With a passion for her profession and lots of experience, photography is her thing.

She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography and sculpture from Birmingham-Southern College.

Olivia’s favorite activities are traveling and porch sitting. She has a slight obsession with all things chinoiserie, and loves creating art outside the realm of photography.

Olivia absolutely loves what she does: getting to capture life's beautiful moments and work with amazing people ... every single day!

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More on Olivia

www.OliviaReedPhotography.com Email: Olivia@OliviaReedPhotography.com

Through the LENS

Meet

Marjolein Dallinga

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MARJOLEIN DALLINGA was born in the Netherlands, where she studied fine arts. She moved to Montréal, Canada, in 1989. Here, she pursued her art career through making art books and jewelry. While raising a family, her creativity led her to toy-making and teaching art classes. This led her to discover felting, and she now works in this medium.

The world-renowned Cirque du Soleil became interested in Marjolein’s work, and for many years she has experimented with felt for their costume design while also creating final products for their shows.

Marjolein has her own company, Bloomfelt.com, and works from her studio with sewing and dyeing rooms.

She has taught felting for 15 years in North America and South America, Europe and Australia. She won three awards for her costumes made for WOW (World of WearableArt) in New Zealand.

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ven as a child, I was always busy building things, and I loved making shelters inside and outside to hide in. I spent a lot of time creating places and garments for my dolls and decorating my room — and even my bike.

I have always been fascinated by colors and always drawn to whatever beauty was around me. My parents sent me to a craft school when I was quite young; I loved going there and have vivid memories of the place. Regular school wasn’t easy for me — I was dreamy and was mostly interested in animals, art and music.

When it was time to leave home to study, all I really wanted to do was make art. However, I was very unsure about my skills and didn’t even try to apply for an art program after high school; instead, I studied art history at university.

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hrough art therapy, I realized that all I really wanted to be was an artist and that I should at least give it a try. I worked very hard for one year to produce a lot of drawings and paintings, and then applied to an art school where I was accepted and finally went to study fine arts.

Then, in 1989, I met my husband in Europe and I moved to Canada to be with him. Although I have never regretted my decision to leave, I discovered that immigrating is a lonesome and difficult experience.

In Canada, I spent my days making art; this was my safe place and a way to deal with my emotions, which I expressed by making art books and jewelry and sculptures from papier-mâché.

My paintings and drawings were quite dramatic and very intimate and I loved to balance this work with more craft-like creations, for which I used paper and textiles and all kinds of threads. I made hundreds of creations in those days, which I finished mostly in book form.

Pregnancy turned my world upside down. I felt a great need to make the toys and clothes I always longed for myself and my world became very small

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and mostly concentrated around my home. I started making cartoons about my little world, which I called “the little gallery.”

When my children came into my life, my work changed in response to their world and I started making toys for them with wool; at this time, I discovered the felting technique and this was truly life-changing for me. I have never left this medium since.

From toys to accessories like scarves, hats and rugs, I discovered more and more ways to use this magical material — the wool. I love this material and the physical aspect of making the felt with my own hands.

By coincidence, I was asked to teach this art, which was, and still is, unknown to many people. I discovered that I really enjoyed teaching and sharing — and this has continued to this day.

Through my workshops, I got into contact with Cirque du Soleil (CDS), which is a very big company with a worldwide reputation. Their invitation to show my textile work was a complete surprise for me. I had never done any costume design, but for some reason I felt very at ease and happy in this environment.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY PHILIPPE DOUCET

“The life of this world is wind.

Windblown we come, and windblown we go away.

All that we look on is windfall.

All we remember is wind.”

— C H A R L ES WR IG HT, T HE SO UT HE R N C R O SS

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orking for CDS tremendously stimulated my creativity and brought many new opportunities. Suddenly seeing my creations being worn was very inspiring and brought my felt art to new levels. My felt artwork really started to bloom after this collaborative work.

By this time, I had taken over the whole basement of our former house as a studio space. Because of the costumes I made for Cirque du Soleil and other companies, my work got more attention in the felt-and-textiles art world and this gave me opportunities to teach internationally.

Slowly, my work changed from costumes to large and quite voluminous sculptural pieces and I felt myself moving from applied art back to the fine arts. I received several grants from the Canadian government to study the possibilities of felt and to do large art projects with this medium.

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“I felt my life with both my hands.”

— E M ILY D IC KINSON

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ome time ago, we found a former dairy farm that had been destroyed by a fire and abandoned for many years. We imagined rebuilding the farmhouse and creating a large studio where I could practice my art on this property. That house and studio have now been built and I work there every day that I am home. Here, I also teach and host guests who come for workshops.

My studio “Bloomfelt” is a colorful and spacious place in the municipality of Gore in the lower Laurentians in the province of Québec in eastern Canada, about one hour from Montréal. It is peaceful and quiet, surrounded by meadows, gardens and wild forest and there are several hiking trails on the property.

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he property was first inhabited by immigrants from Ireland.

This family cleared several acres of forest land and farmed and lived here for two generations. After a fire, which destroyed most of the buildings, the land was abandoned for 30 years.

Nature had started to overtake the formerly cleared land. It has been an incredible effort to rebuild, but today it is a very peaceful place with our family home, a textile studio and a wood workshop.

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“I would love to live Like a river flows, Carried by the surprise Of its own unfolding.”

— JO HN O’D O NO HUE , F LUENT

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY LUCIEN LISABELLE

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o have my own studio is a great blessing and a dream come true. I have literally created “a room of my own.” The solitude and the peaceful atmosphere are true gifts, for which I feel tremendously grateful. At the same time, I love to teach and share this space with others.

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hen we were in the throes of the pandemic and the whole world stopped for a while, I had time to look back at my former work — my paintings, drawings and embroideries. This led to my rediscovery of painting, and lately, I have been combining my felted sculptures with new paintings and also stitching on my felted pieces. I am very happy that painting is back in my life and I am searching to find new combinations.

I don’t really know why I make something, but I do know I want to make it. In art, I am free and everything is possible.

Here I can be open, thin-skinned, easily yielding and very close to delight.

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WATERCOLOR PAINTING BY CLAIRE DUSSAULT

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More on Marjolein

www.Bloomfelt.com Instagram: Bl00mfelt, Bloom.felt Facebook: Bloomfelt

Blair Stocker Photography by Cate Dingley

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Blair Stocker is a modern quilter,

author and quilting educator living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She designs quilts and runs her business, Wise Craft Handmade, from her sunny home studio. Her design focus is on using a variety of fabrics and scraps in her quilts, reminiscent of the patchwork quilts that first sparked her interest many years ago.

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he word “patchwork” has many meanings for me — both literally and figuratively. I have patched together a beautiful life but it hasn’t been without its challenges. Much like the problems I can experience when making a quilt, there are tension issues, points that don’t quite line up, colors that clash.

The process of designing and making quilts and patchwork has given me some valuable insight into how I look at life and what I want out of it. Working through the steps of making a quilt is learning patience, slowing down and trusting the process to get me to the desired outcome.

As a middle schooler in my home state of North Carolina, recurring bouts of strep throat left me in bed and bored for several weeks one winter. Not

sure why I initially asked for it, but I requested a copy of the current issue of Vogue. I had lots of idle time to look through the pages over and over again.

It opened my mind up to the power of style — beautiful fabrics, color combinations and shapes.

I went on to study apparel design in college, and my plan was to move to New York City after graduation to pursue a career in fashion. I managed to stay on that trajectory until I was offered a post-graduation job as a spec sheet writer for a very popular brand of clothing. The home office was half an hour from my hometown. My plans to move were canceled and I began my career in the apparel industry.

Our company was highly successful, and I was promoted to womenswear and then the menswear division (the largest). My job encompassed all the aspects of apparel design I was most interested in: sourcing beautiful fabric, studying trends, the business aspect of fashion and gaining a true understanding of that certain something that people with style possessed. It was extremely fastpaced and so exciting for me. I continued working in the fashion industry for several years, eventually meeting my husband in the field and moving to the Pacific Northwest to pursue a design job in Seattle, Washington.

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hen I was expecting my first child, we decided to try to make our household finances work for me to stay home with our baby. Three years later her little brother arrived. I decided that the industry I loved so much was too fast-paced to work in with little kids at home.

But I was missing a creative outlet. I have always loved making things with pretty fabrics, and have a knack for many kinds of DIY, but never had a focused application for the projects I made — other than the creative work I did in my career and decorating our home. On a whim I started an online craft blog in 2005, all focused on those simple projects and life with my kids.

The upcycling projects I documented caught the attention of a regional chain of thrift stores. I was hired to gather items sold in their stores and create simple, approachable projects to inspire their customers. It was such a fun way to express my creativity, and something I could fit into parenting small children. Eventually, though, I grew tired of having numerous projects in various stages of completion all over the house. I craved more order and intention in what I was making.

I grew up around sewers but not quilters. The idea of making a quilt appealed to me, but I knew there was plenty to learn. The apparel design industry gave me a true love for the power of fabric — the smell of a favorite blanket, the feel of the perfect pair of jeans, the way a loved garment could make you feel while wearing it. A fabric’s ability to evoke memories for us is fascinating to me — the florals of grandma’s kitchen curtains, a favorite childhood doll’s calico dress. It was time for me to really pursue my passion for quilts.

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he first quilt I ever made, 24 years ago, was sewn from fabrics collected from my daughter’s baby clothes and nursery.

The result would win no prizes but was made with love. Even though I had zero experience making quilts before that one, when it was finished I immediately wanted to make another one. And another one. I have been a voracious student of modern quilting ever since.

There are parts of the process I enjoy more than others, but every aspect of making a quilt appeals to me in some way.

My creative passion has now become my fulltime work. I have written two books, created an online membership program to foster community around quilting and teach workshops both in person and online. The physical space I create in has also evolved: Beginning on one side of our dining room table, spilling into and finally taking over a small spare bedroom, then moving into one large side of our basement.

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These days I live in a quiet, remote area outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the studio space I call home has been custom-built to my own specifications, just for me. I feel incredibly lucky. The whole project took just under a year to build as an addition to our home.

Knowing this would most likely be where I would spend most of my days for many years to come, I carefully designed and planned out what I wanted in it and where items would be stored. A professional organizer helped me create not only a space with a place for everything I need daily, but one that also inspires me every time I walk into it.

In the past, any studio surface of mine would usually become a dumping ground for piles of things to be dealt with later. In this new space, it became important to take a hard look at what I wanted out of a space being built entirely for me and my craft. What kind of work do I want to produce in my studio? How does the space honor that work?

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“Tell your own story and you will be interesting.”

— LOUISE BOURGEOIS

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e went through a huge downsizing process before moving to Santa Fe and it gave me a new relationship with all of my belongings. As I reduced the number of things I owned, I began to get a clear view of which items were most important to me. It has given me a better understanding of how too much clutter and disorder actually hinder my creative process. Everything in the studio has meaning and purpose in my creative process and life.

Making patchwork these days involves huge messes. As many as 50 to 75 different fabrics go into one of my quilts, and pulling all those out can create chaos in the studio. But this kind of clutter no longer causes me to feel uninspired or anxious, as it once did. When the work is completed, all the tools and fabrics are returned to their places. This reset process (what I sometimes call procrasticleaning) can be as enjoyable for me as the quilt designing process.

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he amount of physical things I have in my studio has been pared down significantly from previous studios. However, I will never be a minimalist! My coveted collections of needlework samplers, vintage photographs and antique sewing notions found over the years all bring me lots of inspiration. These items used to be dotted around the creative space I was working in, but now I prefer to keep them in a large black studio cabinet of sewing curiosities I call Fern.

Fern keeps special items safely behind glass, away from our curious cat Toby, and protected from dust and the intense New Mexico sun that shines through the large studio windows along the west wall. I use Fern as a revolving display of things that inspire me. Grouping those things together gives them a place of honor and reduces visual clutter around the space. Changing out the contents with the seasons gives each piece a chance to shine and helps me to “see” them again.

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“Don’t borrow trouble.”

— MARGARET MILLAR

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hese days, I teach and connect with others over a shared love and curiosity of patchwork from my studio space. I get to do what I love, every day. I open my studio up once a year for local residents and share my work.

Living in the high desert of the Southwest has sparked even more curiosity and passion for what I do. It’s with this curiosity that I approach my quilt-making practice today.

Much like a photo album can be a collection of memories, a patchwork quilt can be a gathering of all kinds of memories and experiences through fabrics.

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“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”

— FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT, THE SECRET GARDEN

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www.WiseCraftHandmade.com Instagram: BlairS Facebook: BlairWiseCraft Pinterest: BlairWiseCraft

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www.CateDingley.com Instagram: CateDingley

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photojournalist and lifestyle photographer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Across these photographic genres, she finds herself drawn to study individuals who are creative, rebellious and original. Dingley has been photographing for Blair and other local artists since 2020 (when she moved to Santa Fe) and enjoys setting the colors and textures of the textiles next to the subtle tones of the high desert landscape and its unique light.

Her book Ezy Ryders, published in 2022 by The Artist Edition, weaves together five years of documentation of New York City’s Black motorcycle clubs and intimate interviews with the riders.

In 2018, Dingley was selected by Magenta Flash Forward as one of 100 international emerging photographers, and in 2017 she was listed by TIME as one of 34 female photographers to follow. She has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the U.S. and her work has been recognized

by American Photography and the Center for Documentary Studies.

Editorial clients include The New York Times Magazine, Bloomberg Business, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Earlier this year, Dingley had a solo show of her work from Ezy Ryders in the Copenhagen Opera House.

Through the LENS

Cate Dingley is a documentary photographer,

ART OF BUSINESS

TERESA ROCHE

Teresa Roche Textiles | Art & Light Gallery

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Photography by Susan Wienke

TERESA ROCHE is a mixed media artist from Greenville, South Carolina, fulfilling a lifelong dream of designing beautifully made, carefully considered wall coverings and fabric based on her artwork. In addition to being an artist, she has been the owner of Art & Light Gallery for over 17 years. She knows both the fine arts and design worlds well and loves merging the two.

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rowing up in what was once considered the “textile capital of the world,” my life experiences have woven together a colorful tapestry deeply rooted in my hometown of Greenville, South Carolina.

My parents worked in one of the local textile mills and, at a young age, I developed an appreciation for textiles, always fascinated by the colors, textures and patterns of fabrics. From early on, my parents cultivated in me the skill of starting with nothing and building something meaningful.

When I wanted a banana bike, my dad would scavenge around town to find the necessary pieces to retrofit my old bike. When it was time for a new dress, my mom would find remnant fabric and scraps to piece together a fashionable masterpiece. While money was tight, my parents always made it a priority to have a beautifully decorated home. These experiences imbued in me the ability to bring ideas to life.

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a corporate incentive trip to Anguilla, my research of the island led me to read the inspirational story At Blanchard’s Table, about a couple who quit their jobs to open a restaurant in Anguilla. During this trip, I was able to plan an event to meet the Blanchards and dine in their restaurant.

After a second trip to Anguilla, I took my own leap of faith and left a stable, supportive corporate career to open an art gallery where I began to implement business strategies I absorbed over the years.

Encouraged by my success from showing my work in friends’ homes and due to the support of others, I decided to follow my dreams full time.

My neighbor was in the process of buying a building in what would become our city’s art district and encouraged me to open a gallery to showcase my work and that of other local artists.

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Later, I found great satisfaction in the design process and the final product as a way of personal expression — whether in the theater, in a dance studio or in the bridal store I owned.

In particular, the experience of running my bridal store and being constantly surrounded by beautiful textures and fabrics ignited a fervor within me. As a mid-career artist, I arrived here after 20 years in a corporate setting.

Those two decades helped set me up for success, as I learned marketing, project management and developed the business acumen necessary to run my own business. I spent years under the misconception that I could not earn a living pursuing my passion.

At the pivotal cusp of turning 40, and after some time painting casually with co-workers, I was exploring more of my creative side. While planning

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uring the transition time establishing what would become my Art & Light Gallery, I found it hard being on my own.

I missed the comradery, teamwork and structure of my former corporate job. Most importantly, I missed the people.

What I found, however, was that I gained all of what I felt I was missing in the new relationships and friendships I built with artists and customers of the gallery. I thrived in mentoring artists on how to run a business and visiting artist studios with customers. The fledgling neighborhood where I established the gallery was in transition and I experienced many of those initial years discouraged by the lack of interest in visual arts and original art.

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I focused on hosting openings, artist demonstrations and art talks. It was difficult at first to build a local art scene that could sustain a local art gallery. I exerted unwavering effort driven by my aspiration to establish a picturesque gallery that provides customers with the most exquisite encounter, enriched by captivating artworks. Over time, I built credibility and a clientele with a passion for art that was willing to expand their collections beyond our city.

At this segment of the gallery’s journey, I spent much of my time looking to grow the variety of art offered as well as the backgrounds and cultures represented. I also found that the responsibility of running and expanding a business alone came at the expense of creating art.

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everal years ago, as the Village of West Greenville was reinventing itself as a thriving arts district, I purchased a parish house a block from where I later built a new home. It was the perfect opportunity to relocate and own my gallery space. I thrive from the inspiration of living once again in a former mill neighborhood and operating both of my businesses within a few blocks of my home.

With the hiring of my gallery director, Bracken Sansbury, the business was able to expand to now feature over 50 emerging and established local, regional and international artists; 80% being women.

The gallery hosts artist receptions monthly in its rotating exhibit space as well as two other remote

spaces in the “Village.” Thanks to my incredible gallery director, I had the opportunity to spend more time following my passions — in my studio located behind the gallery — painting and designing fabric patterns.

In my studio, I began working on a playful, not-too-decorative collection a few years ago. From this collection, I started to create wall coverings and linen fabrics, each derived from my original paintings. My inspiration stems from a range of sources, including my exposure to visual arts, architecture, design and travel. And, as usual, punctuated with fleeting moments from my surroundings and everyday life, especially joyful experiences with my grandchildren.

This evolution led to the creation of Teresa Roche Textiles.

“If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous. Be happy anyway.”

— MOTHER TERESA

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As I conceive pieces, my artistic impulse focuses on the process of bringing materials to life. Experimentation and the fusion of unlikely materials have become a staple of my creative practice. Unlike traditional planning, my abstract approach allows the paint and other tools to meld together in unexpected ways, often reflecting upon a particular memory or period of time. One of my favored techniques involves pouring high-flow acrylics mixed with water onto the surface, allowing the pouring to seep into the painting as a sort of stain. Charcoal, pastels and Conté are then added in both the wet and dry phases of the painting, with decisions made along the way as to which marks to keep.

In recent years, I have enjoyed incorporating torn surfaces into my work, working with them as if they were a puzzle to be solved. The pieces are then re-connected with thread, creating a unique and constantly evolving piece.

“Nothing will work unless you do.”

— MAYA ANGELOU

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ne lesson in personal growth that I have learned over time is the importance of letting go of the unknown.

Oftentimes I would cling to the familiar and not branch out much beyond my city or state. I was not aware it was approachable, nor aware I could be successful in traveling abroad versus the typical beach vacation.

By exploring outside of my comfort zone, like on a recent trip to Madrid and Soria, Spain, for an artist retreat, I found a new level of inspiration. My art and I underwent a transformation as I fully immersed myself in the Spanish culture, absorbing its sights and sounds.

Even within my textile business, visiting museums to learn how textiles originated in Africa and Italy, I am better able to incorporate more about these cultures into my own work. For example, a lot of my inspiration has come from the gentle fade of antique or vintage handblock fabric.

It is inconceivable how I have not begun to scratch the surface of my own creativity, and I am excited about what I have yet to accomplish.

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ith my home, studio, gallery, and textile workroom all located within walking distance from each other, all within a former mill community, it seems I have come full circle from growing up surrounded by textiles to creating a company specializing in textiles based on my art. As I progress and grow, I have a vision of encountering my fabric unexpectedly during my travels abroad.

Discovering my wallpaper or fabric embellishing a wall, chair or table would truly be a dream come true.

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More on Teresa

www.ArtandLightGallery.com www.TeresaRocheArt.com Instagram: ArtAndLightGallery, TeresaRocheArtAndTextiles Facebook: ArtAndLightGallery, TeresaRocheArtAndTextiles

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SUSAN WIENKE developed a passion for photography in high school because she wanted to follow in her older brother’s footsteps. A consummate traveler and adventure seeker, she has always had a camera in hand. Much to the chagrin of others, she can be found lagging behind on outings trying to capture the perfect shot of something that has caught her eye, usually mushrooms and native flowers.

Eventually, Susan upgraded to a DSLR, snapping photos of her son and his teammates racing bicycles locally. After 10 years of photographing bike races all over the world, she has expanded into capturing photos of art and artists in her role working for Art & Light Gallery in public relations.

When a DSLR is not in hand, her cell phone is always capturing all the nature on long hikes in the mountains or bike rides around the world. She is inspired to tell stories through the use of photographs and loves to have long conversations and critiques with her son, who is also compelled to observe life from behind the lens.

When she is not taking photographs or off on outdoor adventures, Susan enjoys creating stained glass in her home studio, reading about art and cooking vegan/glutenfree delights while listening to a perfectly curated playlist.

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Instagram: SusanWienkePhoto

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Joanne Culbreth Photography by Amy Olivieri

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memorials, event favors and garden art. Her home and studio are located in Neptune Beach, Florida, a lovely beach community just outside Jacksonville. Her passions are her faith, family, animals, gardening and painting. With a beachy boho style, she is inspired by bright gorgeous color combinations. When she isn’t painting, she’s talking to her many animal-loving customers or hanging out in

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the backyard with her husband and one very large dog.

Growing up I had two very different parents who inspired me in different ways. As a true “Daddy’s girl,” I sometimes tagged along with him to work. He managed a grocery store and I’d follow him around requesting my own little jobs to do. As a 6-year-old, I’d be assigned fly-swatting duties at the entry doors and he would pay me a dime for each fly who dared to enter with the customers. My dad was the kindest, most hard-working man I’ve ever known and his customers adored him. I’d love to think this is where my high focus on customer service came from. He passed away in 2010, but to this day I remember watching him and learning how to treat people with big love so they keep coming back for more.

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With a quiet nature like my father, I was a bit more intimidated by my mother — who encouraged me to try anything and everything to put my shy self out there in the world. I loved playing outside and climbing trees, and roller skating was a passion for me as well. I skated competitively for a brief time, but when it was time to enter high school I was a huge music lover so I spent those years in the band and (go mom) baton twirling. I cherish each moment with my mom. She is 97 now and has been living with my husband and me for 13 years.

While both of my parents encouraged me in different ways, neither of them steered me toward a higher education, so I entered the corporate world straight out of high school and didn’t attend college until later in life. For years I worked in HR roles and recruiting, and eventually wound up working in a more technical role as an account manager for a large software firm. It was then that God stepped in and led me down a totally different path.

Enter … the flowerpot.

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I’ve always been a big daydreamer, and my creative left brain finally came out of hiding.

While sitting in my backyard swing one weekend afternoon I found myself gazing at a sad old flowerpot sitting under our big oak tree. After staring at that planter for a while, I decided I would paint it. For some reason, the thought of it actually excited me. I snapped up the planter, hosed off years of dirt and took it inside to paint.

At that time, all I had was some leftover house paint and zero artistic experience, but I gave the outside a couple of coats and found that I loved the process of watching it transform.

Rather than letting it all end there, I decided to go to our local craft store to find paint in some different colors so that I could add some giant flowers to my creation. As I was waiting in the check-out line, I zoned in on the magazines and saw the words that changed everything: PaintA-Pot: 12 Great Clay Pot Projects by Linda Gillum.

I don’t believe in coincidences.

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“Don’t let the noise of the world drown out the work your soul came here to do.”

I have always loved learning,

so I read every word of that book and completed my first creation. I took that planter to work with me to display on my desk and got requests to do more for my co-workers.

That’s when my big dream took hold. I locked in on all the education I could get. I took a decorating class, bought more books on technique and eventually took a business class.

A very talented artist happened to live next door and she let me visit her studio/garage where she worked painting furniture and antiquing mirrors. It was she who told me about Etsy and encouraged me to give it a try. That was in late 2009. I’ve since gone through Marie Forleo’s B-School, and YouTube has become my go-to for painting technique.

I believe that learning is a lifelong thing and a gift to be sought after.

At the same time I opened up shop on Etsy, I also experimented with venues like a local farmers market that also featured local artists. Family members would take turns helping me set up at the weekly market but it was slow going and not my thing. I discovered that I couldn’t sit still and watch people walk by. While I did get sales at this venue, it wasn’t enough to warrant being there for four hours and having to pay a table fee.

Another thing happened there that sealed it for me. A woman walked by and her little girl came running over to say she loved the little pots I had on display and wanted to get one. Her mother replied, “Honey, you could make that yourself at home.” Years later, I find it amazing that I can have thousands of five-star reviews yet still remember that moment like it was yesterday.

— MARIE FORLEO

I have no formal training in art,

nor are there any artists in my family, but as time went by I could feel my work improving. Watching trends and scouring beautiful magazines and websites became an obsession. I slowly added more items to my shop. In that first year, I only sold a few things, but each sale brought me joy. Still working my full-time job, I would come home every evening and paint something new to add to the site. I took over half of our dining room table with a drop cloth.

My mother helped peel the stickers off the planters (back then, purchased at craft stores). Coming home to this tiny space after my “real-world job” each day elated me, and the following year things picked up significantly.

I began to get requests for event favors and weddings, which required the purchase of pots in

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higher volume. The craft store did not have enough planters for an order I received so I drove to the local nursery and used up their supply. It was there that I inquired about the nursery’s supplier, and they gave it to me without question! I began purchasing the planters wholesale and they now arrive in a semitruck on pallets.

The day a customer asked me to do a custom pet memorial was the turning point for my online business. Once completed to her specifications, I photographed it and added a listing to my shop.

The orders started coming in. As those were larger planters than my event favors, I needed much more space so we converted our spare bedroom into my studio space. It was around this time that I took a huge leap: After saving a chunk of money, I left my corporate job. I have never looked back.

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We added a large sunroom onto the back

of our home and opened up the bedroom, so it is now one large sunny space full of worktables and shelving for storage space. Looking out the glass wall in the back, over our big tree-filled backyard, is like a dream come true. My best friend gave me a lovely couch she was getting rid of and I added a pretty boho couch cover. There are plants everywhere and the space is filled with mementos such as my dad’s old shoeshine box and pieces of pottery my kids made in school.

I love that friends, family and our pets love coming into this welcoming space, filled with music and scented candles, where they can have a cup of coffee, tea or a glass of wine in the evenings. My sweet 21-year-old cat, Millie, sleeps in a wine crate when she isn’t hanging out on the floor while I paint; and there’s even room for our big boy Vader, a 10-year-old spoiled rotten Great Dane. Plus, that best friend of mine I mentioned, along with my husband, built a big, beautiful shed to store all of my supplies.

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These days I collaborate

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with two other artists on my pet memorials for a beautiful gift package (even the box has handdrawn art). I believe that loving on customers is one of the biggest reasons for my success. Many of them are gifting a friend or family member who is hurting over the loss of a beloved pet, and I totally get that.

It’s my goal for every item that goes out to be an “experience” for the customer to open, not just a painted flowerpot. Most of my creations have a vintage rustic kind of feel — with crackling and coloring blending for an aged look — because to me, vintage and gardening just go together. I know this style isn’t for everyone, so I balance it out with a beautiful selection of solid colors for my polka dot planters. Those are very popular for wedding favors as well as bridal and baby showers.

Everyone is different, and the world would be quite boring if we all loved the same things!

Looking back, I realize that it doesn’t matter how big your space is. You can make it your own even if it starts in a closet with a pretty rug, a tiny desk and a funky vintage mirror.

It took a decade to come into this larger space, and the journey has been amazing. I believe God places big dreams on the hearts of people, and those are the ones we must hang on to. They don’t happen in our time frame, but somehow the timing always seems to be perfect.

My new Instagram page is a cross between my studio life and a pet memorial page for my customers. I don’t focus on social media too much because I’ve learned to “look up instead of out” (great advice from the pastor at our church). Getting the “approval of the masses” seems like a very tiring goal and I’d rather just create for those who appreciate what I do and why.

A portion of the proceeds from my sales goes to several animal-related/rescue organizations, and that is a huge part of my “why.” There is also a pet memorial page on my website and those photos are always included in my newsletter as well.

Customers LOVE this, and that’s what it’s really all about! Creating things that bring joy to people has always been my goal, and I want nothing more than that going forward.

I know my Daddy would be proud.

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More on Joanne

www.HappyMooseGardenArt.com Etsy: www.HappyMoosegardenart.etsy.com Instagram: HappyMooseGardenArt Pinterest: HMGardenArt

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www.LoveMakesTheBestArt.com Instagram: AmyOPhotographer Facebook: AmyOlivieriPhotographer

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photographer in Atlantic Beach, Florida. She lives in a three-dog-dirty, love-filled home, close enough to be able to walk to the beach. Amy likes to dance in the kitchen but never while making anything delicious to eat.

She’s a terrible cook. Don’t ask her to do that. Ask her to make a photograph of you doing something you love with someone you love.

Before focusing solely on capturing the beautiful, oft-forgotten blip moments of life, Amy created and published a magazine that promoted dog rescue and adoption, so life with dogs is a huge focus of Amy’s photography. She works exceptionally well with animal lovers, creatives, kind-hearteds and people who think perfection is boring; and she aims to create storytelling photographs that are the kind you think about even after you’re no longer holding the photo.

Through the LENS

AMY OLIVIERI is a story

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ARTIST LIVES HERE

INSPIRATION EVERYWHERE with Lori Siebert

Sam Leonard and Hacienda Mosaico

BY LYN TREMBLAY

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Under the hot Mexican sun, in an upscale Puerto Vallarta neighbourhood, visitors to HACIENDA MOSAICO arrive in front of a red metal door.

The entry is centred on an adobe wall stretching along the block, its surface interrupted by columns decorated in shards of ceramic. A metal and ceramic sign identifies the destination: “Hacienda Mosaico.”

Pull the little chain beside the door and the ringing of a bell signals you are about to be transported into a magical world, the world of artist Sam Leonard, the creator of Hacienda Mosaico, as told by writer and artist Lyn Tremblay.

From LORI SIEBERT: Given that I LOVE teaching and being with kindred creatives and I LOVE Mexico … Hacienda Mosaico looks absolutely dreamy!! The gorgeous colorful mosaics … the artfully crafted furniture … the folk-art finds that wind through this property provide eye candy at every turn!! I would LOVE to teach here one day!

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wenty-seven years ago, Sam Leonard and her husband left home in Utah with plans to visit Puerto Vallarta for a month. That month stretched into years, and finally, the couple decided to purchase property.

Sam fell in love with a charming hacienda, complete with a house and guest casita, nestled behind a privacy wall. Her husband stayed for 16 months. Sam has never left.

An old proverb states, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” When the dust had settled after her husband’s departure, “necessity” became the driving force behind Sam’s survival.

With everything gone, including furnishings that had been unlawfully carted off, Sam found herself starting from scratch. But she still had the house!

“I saw the potential here,” she recalls. “The property found me, and I had to figure out what to do with it.”

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Sam decided to turn the property into an art retreat. She would create an environment where instructors could hold workshops, where artists could find inspiration to fuel creative energy and experiment with art uninhibited. She admits, “I naively thought it was a way I could also take classes to learn more.”

But first, she had to have furniture.

In past years, as Sam took on numerous entrepreneurial endeavours to earn a paycheck, she had also been honing her artistic talents.

“I started sculpting with paper,” she recalls. “I would dumpster dive for old telephone books and blended them up. I made armatures with copper wire and started adorning the paper sculptures with beads, which was how I was introduced to fusing — and that led to metal working.” This was long before tutorials and online classes, she adds. “But I did take an adult education course in Utah on furniture-making.”

That course might have helped save the day.

“Some of my furniture made its way back to me, but mostly, people gave me furniture and I painted it, and I made things out of pressed board. I read books on how to make floorcloths so I could cover the tiled floors. I had to use materials that were readily available. No fancy expensive acrylics. I used house paints,” she says.

“I acted out of necessity. I did what I had to do.”

And so, her creation, Hacienda Mosaico, began.

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he hacienda, originally called “Pavo Real” (Royal Turkey, i.e. Peacock), was built in 1956 by the prestigious Marroqui family, who started a thriving hotel business in the years when Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor came to town to shoot The Night of the Iguana.

Architecturally, the traditional Mexican home has good bones; thick adobe walls with a stucco finish, tiled roof and arched doorways and windows. Plus, a tall adobe wall surrounding the property provides privacy for the oasis within. Those walls, inside and out, plus the floors, ceilings, windows, pathways and gardens … all have become part of Sam’s creation, whether it be through the artwork adorning them or the surfaces themselves that have become canvases for art.

This has been no small task over 20 years, when you consider the property has also been expanded to include her studio and an outdoor kitchen. To give you a sense of scale, Hacienda Mosaico has eight bedrooms, 10.5 baths, a workshop, pool, patio areas and three kitchens, plus public and private living spaces.

As a self-taught artist, Sam explains, her work often has an arbitrary and intuitive starting point.

“Creating art for me is challenging, but the endless possibilities make it an integral part of how and why I enjoy each day. My home is my best palette,” she says. “It’s a crazy mix of styles, stuff I’ve made and collected and little adjustments I’ve made to the structure itself. It’s me, though, and nobody who really knows me and has seen it would think otherwise. I believe it is important that people take an active hand in creating their environments, since their environments take such an active hand in creating them.”

Sam’s aesthetic is guided by her sense of whimsy and layer upon layer of color, texture and pattern.

She often uses found materials in her work. “I love the process of reordering existing objects and discovering new ways to extend the life of them by recycling and redefining uses. I love the natural visual and tactile pleasures of manipulating materials into pieces of beauty and function. I enjoy being able to work in both two and three dimensions, turning ideas into something of substance and form,” she notes.

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One is drawn beyond this room into a dining/ living room area rivaling any art museum. Here, light spills through tall glass vases sitting on wide windowsills, their images reflected on an expansive glass tabletop resting on two massive pieces of agave root. This one-of-a-kind dining-room table is surrounded by metal banana-leaf chairs designed and created by Sam. Nearby, a glass and metal cabinet (also created by the artist) sports funky shoe molds for legs!

Sam primarily utilizes glass, metal and canvas, noting: “They produce wonderful collaborations, but I am particularly struck by the potential of glass and its dimension, clarity, color reflectivity and environmental presence.”

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hen Sam began this part of her art journey, she took a month and travelled all around Mexico and Guatemala with a friend: “I went to markets and scrounged around in bins. I’ve used the fabric from clothing that indigenous people wear to cover cushions. In Guadalajara, I purchased things such as a hand-painted canvas costume and masks, that are still used in ceremonial celebrations.” She has incorporated these, along with Mexican handblown glass and paintings from local artists, to achieve Hacienda Mosaico’s ambience.

The costume-and-mask ensemble dominates a wall in the front sitting room, a place where those who enter the home can start to enjoy a total immersion into, and be inspired by, art.

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— Anne Truitt

“I never decided at all to be an artist; being an artist seems to have happened to me.”

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ontinuing to explore this artfilled space, one recognizes her signature layers — from the lively painted floorcloths to a traditional equipale sofa covered in brightly patterned fabric, topped with cushions in more colors and textures that lend a bohemian vibe. A full-size wooden Catrina lounges in a chair, her outstretched legs resting on another one of Sam’s creations — a funky footstool. An intricately painted folk-art cupboard, designed by Sam and hand-painted by artist Jesse Reno, dominates a corner. One longs to hear the stories behind each painting adorning the walls and the quirky sculptures artfully displayed on numerous tabletops — the tables themselves works of art!

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inally, visitors cannot resist the temptation to search for the source of splashing water. Outside an arched doorway, a beautiful mosaic features playful swimming fish, the backdrop for a gurgling fountain.

“One of the best things I did was to have the arch at the back of the house built,” says the artist. “And when that was done, I added mosaic work on the floors inside and I built the water fountain and the mosaic on the back wall. I just sketched it on the wall and started.”

Oh, the mosaics!!!!

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Part of the evolution of Hacienda Mosaico had a lot to do with Sam’s initial vision.

Remember the idea to invite instructors to teach workshops? Where would they come from? Who would they be?

“I went through Somerset magazines and I found out who was teaching and where, and I invited them to come,” says Sam. “It took off from the beginning.”

Teachers and students now come from around the world. They learn about Hacienda Mosaico via word of mouth, and many have become good friends. Two of those teachers, Bonnie Fitzgerald and Laurel True, have returned time and again. They and their students are responsible for the other mosaics adorning the walls of Hacienda Mosaico. The colourful, sparkling mandalas are Laurel’s passion and greet visitors beginning on the outside walls by the front entry and continuing around the property. Bonnie’s creations are the whimsical characters, such as the Mexican Catrinas raising a glass to guests on the walls of the casita.

A testament to the change Sam has made in the lives of others came in a recent email message from Bonnie. “Have I told you lately I adore you?” she wrote. “I am truly grateful for the opportunity to work with you, some of my very favorite artworks live with you!”

Some of these artworks peek out through the lush greenery of the hacienda’s gardens, others beckon one to wander down a pathway or linger in a hidden sitting area — each decorated with more sculptures and garden furnishings created by Sam.

“I am an artist … my Work of art is my lIfe.”

— D.T. Suzuki

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“Everything has been a natural progression and evolution,” she says. “The pathways were all here, I just added things. In the beginning, I purchased plants for $2 at nearby nurseries.”

Now several varieties of palm trees tower over the site. Fruit trees — banana, mango, a star fruit tree, avocado — all grow amongst bird-of-paradise, vermilion and the prolific heliconia, and provide privacy from curious outsiders.

Eleven years ago, Sam found someone else to share her passion. Her husband, Xenofon, is responsible for the cactus and fern gardens on the property; when the mosaics cannot be finished in a class, he completes them. His current projects involve facelifts to some of Sam’s original creations.

“After Xeno showed up, I didn’t have to push myself so much,” she says.

When it comes to her art, Sam muses, “I create what I enjoy and enjoy what I create. I have no message to convey, no outrage to share. My art comes from my simple self, and I do not challenge, question or analyze it. I share it.”

Hence, Hacienda Mosaico has come to fruition.

“It exemplifies the power of group expression, ceremony, and celebration,” says Sam. “Artists are invited to play, be spontaneous and follow their heart. Magic and wonders are possible when creative passion speaks. If you can’t evoke emotions, you don’t create art.”

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More on Sam

www.HaciendaMosaico.com Email: info@HaciendaMosaico.com

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“Choice by choice, moment by moment, I build the necklace of my day, stringing together the choices that form artful living.”

— Julia Cameron

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More on Lyn

www.LynTremblay.com Instagram: Lyn_Tremblay Facebook: LynTremblayOriginals Pinterest: LynTremblay

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LYN TREMBLAY is a writer and visual artist who has let “stories” be her guiding light throughout a lifetime of creativity. Her written words have captured stories about homes and gardens in glossy magazines, as well as those that are the lifeblood of community newspapers. Her abstract artwork and jewellery, created primarily in polymer clay, reveal a different story to all who view them.

PATRICIA BOINE ST POTTER AND JE SSE W. AKERS artXarchitectureXstudio

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Patricia Boinest Potter and Jesse W. Akers welcome you with open arms to “virtual tree house studio” in the depths of the forest of North Alabama leading to a ravine and hidden spring below known as Booger Hollow. artXarchitectureXstudio is an experimental space that operates with and within this Appalachian hillside.

If you are interested in exploring connections, which begin here and stretch out through the universe and back, this is a place to begin.

Pat:

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From the beginning, my work has been about exploring the space between.

From 1995 to 1997, I studied in London, Paris and Helsinki and received my Master of European Studies in Architecture from the School of Architecture and Design in Helsinki.

My thesis project, “Skinning the CATTt,” looks into the space between and concludes, “In the end, all we have are the moments, the details. We watch as they are absorbed by the paper, as they slide between blank pages. The details are more than a magnified view — more than fragments of the whole.

They are the lines, the tales, that open to all boundaries at once.”

Reading Douglas Hofstadter and French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gives me another way to look between. The difference between DAVID WALTERS × AVALON STUDIO Hofstadter and Deleuze is: Hofstadter sees likeness while Deleuze sees difference. I attempt to see both while visualizing the unseen.

I was first fascinated by Bell’s theorem in the early 1970s, now called quantum entanglement. It still is at the top of my interests — how we are all connected, not only in the moment but throughout time. What is time that it allows such an interconnectedness?

My work since 2005 has been about mapping patterns. When beginning my work with PATTERNS I asked my grandson Morgan, age 3, what he thought a pattern was. He thought for a few minutes and said, “Things that go on and on.”

It is the movement and evolution of these patterns that interests me.

Looking back at my own evolution, reaching out and returning, I see the movement of the Möbius twisting and turning.

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Between Place and Time

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I am

now looking for connections: the movement between, patterns of place and patterns in time — between my last two bodies of work Patterns of Place: Isomorphic Map Tables and Patterns in Time: becoming... being.. disappearing. I see the tree house itself as an installation of becoming, being and disappearing. Visiting our virtual tree house studio is to explore a space between art and architecture grounded by a site.

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“It is a house that holds together the most, and the most complicated, ‘different possible worlds’ in the same container, allowing them to exist together along a constructed plane with no need of a preestablished harmony.”

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—John Rajchman, The Virtual House

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My family moved to Alabama from Charleston, South Carolina, when I was 5. My father, an architect and acrobat, encouraged fun, play and questioning.

Part of my quest for fun included exploring. I would hike these magical hills and remember discovering a place with natural springs and waterfalls known as Booger Hollow. I still remember a moment when my heart leapt with joy.

At about 10 years old, I was walking a tiny path along the steep side of a flowing rocky mountain stream, light rippling on the water, shadows and spring breezes playing with the sparkling green leaves.

I remember pronouncing it “my favorite place.”

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It also may be like exploring a swamp: “A place of mystery, of enchantment, of danger, where liquid sounds hang in the mist. The swamp is not like a mountain range or a sunset that might be loved from a distance. You must be in the midst of the swamp — sense its dangers — to know the enchantment of its presence. The swamp is a place for passive activities — watching, listening — allowing something to be done to us. The swamp is a place of non-symmetrical reflections — where trees are indistinguishable from their roots — a place that is alive, aware — a place of origins, of contradictions, of coexisting processes that enliven each other.” — from Skinning the CATTt The whole tree house acts as the studio in a similar way.

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ears later when I walked this property looking

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for a place to build, my heart knew right where it was.

It is where I continue to play and create, falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.

One of the first things I learned to do was to fall.

From the time I was a small babe, my father would hold me high in the air. I can still remember the fall, always to be caught by strong hands just before hitting the ground. I still remember the trust I felt in the fall.

The fall is another way to travel through the space between.

In 1975, in collaboration with architect Julian Jenkins, we designed and built the tree house, which contained my studio as well as the family home for my husband, Guice Potter, Jr., and two children, Guice III, who was age 12 at the time, and Julee, age 9.

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The front entry to the tree house is across a 75-foot bridge at the third level.

One may descend the three-story stairwell moving through levels as a way of falling down the rabbit hole following a “spinal hinge” reaching a projected wonderland in a tiny, mirrored room at the bottom of the stairs. The tree house does not intrude upon its environment. It looks as if it grows from the forest rather than being placed on it. There’s a relationship among all involved: trees, birds, animals, the work, the people, all connected in these interwoven processes of life.

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he tree house is a magnetic force attracting the

energies needed in the studio. Each space takes a symbiotic role in the creative cycle: places to study, read, rest, gather ideas, stretch the mind, ease the mind, stretch the body, ease the body, places to gather. We like to change the level or the room in which we work or gather to perform, discuss, think and engage within the different vitalities of each space.

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PHOTO BY PETER FRANK EDWARDS

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artXarchitectureXstudio

creates various forms of art, ranging from architectural installations to three-dimensional assemblages — sculptural reliefs — to handmade and digitally printed books.

Assemblage, in our definition, refers not only to matter but to concepts and ideas. Painting and drawing are also common in the studio; we use sketches, drawings and digital prints as a part of our communication with each other and as a way to develop ideas.

We are drawn to natural materials, wood, branches, leaves, vines, moss, tree bark, rocks, bones, shells, and found objects from the forest. Beveled glass, broken glass, metal, and treasured items that have been collected throughout time may be incorporated. We access a wide variety of media for our works and enjoy experimenting with manipulation, such as burning Tyvek or oxidizing metals. Our materials — collected through the years

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and selected from collections of the past; found fragments of nature and fragments of art — might work their way into an “emerging assemblage.”

Energy is reciprocal and we feel our work emerges from the energy of this place and time generating energy back into it.

The materialization of our ideas and concepts happens in the studio on the lower level which extends to an outdoor work area.

Both look like that swamp we mentioned earlier.

“Art is of the animal. It comes, not from reason, recognition, intelligence, not from a uniquely human sensibility, or from any of man’s higher accomplishments, but from something excessive, unpredictable, lowly. ... Art comes from the excess, in the world, in objects, in living things, that enables them to be more than they are, to give more than themselves, their material properties and qualities, their possible uses, than is self-evident.”

— Elizabeth Grosz

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y story is a tale of becoming, being and disappearing.

I am now in the third stage — disappearing. In teaching architecture studios at Iowa State and Auburn University, I found that I enjoyed having younger people around and sometimes could see them taking my critiques and carrying through my concepts further than I could. It made me want to have a studio that worked like an architect’s studio, one where the architect does the design and artists are around to help with the carry-through. My work over the past 20 years has operated in this manner.

After studying and teaching in Europe and the U.S., I returned to Anniston, Alabama, asking myself, “Why am I here?” I remembered Picasso’s words: “[The artist] can only rediscover what has been lost, forgotten and misunderstood.”

Alabama is certainly such a place in need of rediscovery.

Working in collaboration is both an opportunity and a challenge. There are many differences in one’s being and our way of understanding each other. Coming together from a different place and time increases the vibrational energy within the work dynamic and encourages a different method of creating. This method can especially champion elder artists to continue their work.

Jesse W. Akers has worked with me since 2018. A 55-year age difference exists between us.

Jesse:

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I didn’t start as a collaborator.

I had artistic inclinations and practiced often, but I still had much to learn and always will. It was absorbing Pat’s practice and principles, what influenced her ideas and connecting these processes or methodologies, that would prepare me to evolve and assemble our concepts. Coming from a surrealist background, I had to lean my mind into an idea of abstraction or what Pat considers a “visual philosophy,” a place my mind didn’t so willingly go.

Even in two dimensions, we see a direction into a depth that bridges the viewer to a motion or path revealing these greater patterns.

When I joined the artXarchitecture team, there were processes of becoming, being and disappearing happening in the development of our shared endeavors — myself in a new environment, new challenges, new difficulties, a cycle of growing and decreasing, knowledge and doubt, a shift in roles — where I would take on a more direct approach and see my collaborator adjust to a different way of working. Work that brought a new way of constructing ideas.

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Our studio operates on many architectural principles and uses a method of layering to create concepts. We document and archive as a way to preserve layers and come back to them as points of expansion.

In essence, our studio is a place for serious PLAY, EXPERIMENT, not knowing what the outcome will be. It is truly the space of the question.

Most walk in and see a world of total madness where we see a place to make the impossible, possible. There is a liberation in creating; play or experimenting is a part of that freedom. Even our animals, my cat, Merlin, and Jesse’s retired racing greyhound, Salvador, engage in our play and creative energies in the studio.

However, it is not all play, much of our work requires a degree of engineering and problem-solving, something more technical, more analytical. At any given moment, there are many cogs turning and being a part of the team requires you to “wear many hats.”

PHOTO BY PETER FRANK EDWARDS

“Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”

— Albert Einstein

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Deleuze because he tries very hard not to tell you what to do or think and that is collaboration at its best. It is important in our work that we don’t tell you how to think or see, but present possibilities.

I consider myself a translator — a map maker. I read many books at one time and translate what I read into images. Images are another language, one more collectively understood by the whole.

The space between the map and the territory continues to appeal to me in that the imagination must travel beyond the surface to connect the two. Our work often becomes something of a threedimensional map and might be seen as an architectural model.

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bserving and translating into the language of

art is not looking at a surface, but into a multi-dimensional abyss of ripples, reflections and repetitions, something that emerges into the landscape of our world.

Although the future will give us imaginary portals into many virtual realities, we want our work to be grounded by a SITE in the real world. That is what our tree house studio, here in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, is for us and for anyone who would like to come for a visit.

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PHOTOS BY PETER FRANK EDWARDS

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More on Pat, Jesse and artXarchitecture www.PatriciaboinestPotterXstudio.com Instagram: ArtXArchitecture; IndigoAkers

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and Nancy Erickson Dutmer

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PET TALES

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CHIWI CHALUPA CHULALONGTIME

from Chetek, Wisconsin, is a very big name for a very small Chihuahua-terrier mix, which is precisely why this no-frills dog prefers just “Chi.” DEFINITION OF CHI: “The vital force…inherent in all things.” Dealing with autoimmune disease, Chiwi reserves her vital force and has become quite the couch-potato-princess of a dog. Lucky for her, Nancy creates art all over their museum-worthy 1922 home where there is a plethora of lie-d-down spots.

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ommy asked me if I could write about her life as an artist. My quizzical look implored her to hear my thought, “What does an artist do?”

She said she is a painter, bead embroiderer and a mixed media creator — which is why we move from room to room just when I’m all snuggled down for a nap.

Mommy’s artist name is Scarlet Lake, but her real name is Nancy Erickson Dutmer, sometimes NED, and I can’t live without her!! In fact, I don’t know where I’d be living if she hadn’t adopted me. I was found on the lam in Texas, fostered out, then driven to St. Paul, Minnesota, where I met my parents, both singers and musicians as well. They adopted me and I got to move into this crazy musical artsy house. The kooky thing is that they take me back to Texas every March so Mama can do art festivals.

When we’re at home in Wisconsin, most days she starts sewing beads onto something. That would be in my brother Lochlan’s old bedroom-turned-art studio after his furniture was gone. But then my oldest brother, Austin, sent a vintage bedroom set, so once again it’s an art studio/ spare bedroom. I watch Mama from the bed or on a stack of Asian pillows on the floor. Mama has left me five times to go to Japan: SHE’S CRAZY ABOUT IT, so we have a lot of Asian pieces in our house.

On the wall behind her beading table — where she beads dogs, fish, birds, scenery, dragonflies, armadillos or the portraits she paints — is some Asian art by her and HER Mommy! Mama’s childhood kimono from Chinatown hangs there with a photo of my sister, Tzeitel, wearing it when she was little. In Japan, she bought me a kimono, too (called a “yukata” for day dress)!

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hat moves us to the dining room.

Doesn’t everyone have a Chinese wedding bed in their dining room? It makes for a cozy spot to watch my Mommy work on her oil painting. She sets up her easel out here where there’s a little more room and she has a captive audience of international puppets and me (in my yukata!). Did I mention I understand Japanese commands?

Her paintings are usually funny, too. She likes her art to make people smile so she paints people with fun animals and sometimes the animals are the people! Then there are the old-timey circus paintings Mama loves to create.

We won’t even go into our circus kitchen today ’cause all I do is eat there. Mama uses her dining room table to make wild deer mount sculptures or tiny mouse houses. She also builds her frames and attaches hardware onto art out here. Luckily, my parents usually eat in the living room!

Ohhhhh … the living room, aka The Pink Palace. That’s where Mommy’s computer is and where she applies for art shows, communicates with galleries and works on her Instagram and Facebook pages while I take a siesta in her lap.

Wait, did I say siesta? I also understand some Spanish words, and a good thing ’cause Mommy prep cooks part time at a Mexican restaurant.

Are you tired yet? I am, so off we go to my favorite sleeping nook — the master bed! I’m quite content on her bed, on or under a blankie or two, while Mama cuts out material for her hand-painted beaded fabric portraits. These have clothes and fabric backgrounds, too, and Mama knows this surface is the largest place in our house to stretch out to work. All’s well with me until she gets the iron out, then I jump off the bed for shelter in my little basket.

Meanwhile, my Mommy puts together her beaded portraits here, like the one of some guy formerly known as Prince (?). I can relate, I was formerly known as Bubbles, but as Mama’s busy art day progresses, she will likely call me Tweets, Precious Pup, Hello Dolly, Baby Cakes, My Little Love or Peeps. I guess my “pet” names are as varied as my Mama’s mediums. She says she loves all creative endeavors, but beading and painting are her favorites. I am also her favorite, and that’s why she has so many places for me to be near her when she’s home making art.

She is my vital force and I am her Chi!

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More on Nancy

www.NancyEricksonDutmer.net Facebook: NancyEricksonDutmer Instagram: ScarletLakeHouse

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRUCE MARSH, CHETEK, WI

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