I was thrilled to be invited to Nancy's studio; do you believe, for the first time! Gathering ideas for her solo exhibition, she presented the idea of Brittle Branches, which I took to immediately. 

This exhibition fuses her pastoral pastiche with a fresh perspective on representational abstraction. The new suite of paintings - appropriately titled "Brittle Branches" numerically - calls attention to the atmosphere beyond, plays with the rigidity of line, and subsequently softens it with impasto texturing.  --Lauren
 
Read more below and enjoy studio scenes from a dedicated studio artist with a long career of innovation. 

Planning for Kimberlee Rocca's solo exhibition Picking up the Pieces began in February 2020 when she first invited us in about seeing some new ideas. Her aha! moment of discovery, with her experience in foil imaging for the past 30 years, was exciting and fresh and warranted the culmination of a show.

In this blog post, we collected images of what we'll call Phases 1-3 of the process for the exhibit. Also featured is her wonderfully chaotic studio; marks of a playground for a multidisciplinary artist. Messy, bright, and plenty of vertical space to dream big.

Our first "studio visit" of the year without a doubt needs to be where bright and colorful works live.  Thanks to the pandemic and for everyone's peace of mind, we 'visited' virtually through 2020 and collected images and video of Mary Zeran's space. We were fortunate enough to see how she created her installation for her 10 year exhibition at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. This was also a great opportunity to see the birth of the new print series featured in Mission Happiness.

Since we didn't have the pleasure of visiting his studio, we asked if David Kupferman would share a few photos of his space while working on some of the new works in Endless Planes.
 
Spacious and well organized, it seems to reflect the deliberate and precisely imprecise nature of the artworks themselves. David's work uniquely depicts crushing waves of energy- ostensibly falling into and out of frame and yet confined to it. It's fun to imagine what colors and gestures lie just outside of the windows of his workspace.

Read more below

We checked in with Julia about her works in the upcoming exhibit Endless Planes and were presented with a question: "Would you like some wine?"

This question perfectly outlines Julia and her artwork. Inviting and casual, the world outside falls away as you're carefully led into her  isolated travels through paint, texture, plains, mountains, and the lake. Her personality is etched into the paint by way of brush stokes, and the coloring and composition pull you into a serene landscape of nothing-and-everythingness.

What a joy it was to chat about her new works. The love for intended seclusion and the act of painting is felt and seen. Read more below for the first peek.

There is a plethora of symbolism and iconography loaded into Mary Koenen Clausen's artwork. For the curious minds and who want to know more, read below for a few snippets about her work and download a PDF filled with terms and definitions. You can also catch her artist talk under 'videos' and artworks in Peculiar Reality.

Due to the nature of Mary's process, it's difficult to capture the intricacies of her process in a typical Studio Visit. Enjoy a little reading below about her inspirations.

We're calling this a Studio Visit but we didn't have the opportunity to see Jillian Moore's progress in person for her new line of sculptures (thanks COVID-19). Instead, Jillian shared these process photos of her work so we could get the inside scoop on how these are constructed! To see how all the works turned out, check out the finished wall pieces in Peculiar Reality.

View the rest of the studio photos below.

We stopped by Kimberlee Rocca's studio earlier in the week to get an update and see a new direction in her latest pieces. We previewed of some new technical combinations, fresh composition works in progress, and a glimpse into new suspended pieces.

Check out a few sneak-peek photos below: Click here to see available works