Going Straight to the Source
Have a cookie, meet the artist, buy a piece. That's how the best open studios are supposed to work.
 Furniture show at last year's SOWA Art Walk. (Globe Staff Photo / Essdras M. Suarez) |
Painter Arthur Hardigg leads a hermetic existence most of the year, creating prints and oils in a small studio on the third floor of the red-brick Building Number 4 in Waltham Mills. But at the annual Waltham Mills Open Studios, the chocolate chip cookies baked by his mother-in-law seem to break the ice. Once the treats arrive, a stream of people follows – including two collectors who have returned to Waltham Open Studios for three years in a row to buy from the artist.
Hardigg’s paintings and works on paper are a maze of lines that give birth to figures rising from the frenzy like angels.
Maybe it’s the friendly faces of repeat buyers, but today Hardigg is every bit engaged with the public, happy to share his vision. “One man came up to me yesterday and said, ‘I can see from your paintings that you’ve had a troubled personal history,’ ” Hardigg says.
That’s the kind of conversation that Open Studios are all about. The strange marriage of reclusive but impassioned artist with the cookie-munching public would seem as mixable as oil and water.
But it works. Artists get exposure and the chance to sell their work without splitting the price with a gallery. It’s also an excellent opportunity for collectors to eye a vast amount of wares from artists in varying stages of their careers.
There are painters who already show at galleries and museums. Others are fresh out of art school, sometimes selling top-notch pieces at bargain prices.
Many artists, like Gabrielle Schaffner of the Fort Point Arts Community, live where they work, which can result in embarrassing situations. “I’ve had people pick up my personal note cards
and ask if they could buy them. Others check out my bedroom, my book collection,” she says. “Once you open your door, you never know what’s going to happen.”
A Brief Guide to the Best
NEWTON OPEN STUDIOS, May 20-21, newtonopenstudios.com
Newton is one of the few communities to hold Open Studios in the spring, and the extra space of suburbia means luxuries like a sculpture garden.
SOUTH END OPEN STUDIOS, September 16-17, useaboston.com
Studios and galleries open their doors, and there’s a crafts market, too. PLUS: SoWa Art Walk, May 20-21, sowaartwalk.com.
JAMAICA PLAIN OPEN STUDIOS, September 30-October 1, jpopenstudios.com
With more than 200 artists concentrated in a small area, visitors can easily see a variety of work.
FORT POINT ARTS COMMUNITY OPEN STUDIOS, October 13-15, fortpointarts.org
Boston’s oldest open studio event features some of the city’s best-known artists. PLUS: Spring Art Walk, May 5-6.
DORCHESTER OPEN STUDIOS, October 21-22, dorchesterartists.org
See the work of 70 artists at this up-and-coming affair.
WALTHAM MILLS OPEN STUDIOS, November 4-5, 2006, wmaastudios.org
Artists display their work in a former cotton and wool factory on the Charles River.
For more information, visit bostonopenstudios.org.
