The sixth annual “Columbia Open Studios” is this weekend, and the staff here at the Rosewood Free Press always looks forward to visiting artists in their work place and talking about the creative process.
This year 70 artists across the city will open their doors and invite folks in to check out their work, be it paintings, sculpture, drawings, photography, or whatever their imagination has concocted. The hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. There’s no charge for studio visits, but the artists (who are not all starving, by the way) would love it if you took home some artwork.
The best way to prepare for your studio crawl is to pick up a copy of this week’s Free Times, which has a 30-page booklet inside that’s complete with artists’ bios and maps to the studios. There are maps of Earlewood, Five Points, Shandon, Heathwood, Melrose Heights, Forest Acres, and of course Columbia’s most artistic neighborhood, Rosewood. (An informal survey was conducted here in the Free Press newsroom, and Rosewood was the unanimous winner. It was totally unbiased, we assure you.)
Rosewood has three representatives on the Open Studios tour. Two live on Deerwood, Ed Bryan who makes ceramics at his Deerwood Clay Studio at 1004 Deerwood, and Patrick Mahoney, who operates Totally Mundo Productions at 607 Deerwood. Mahoney lists drawing, painting, photography, and “other” has his artistic endeavors. The third Rosewood artist on the tour is Frol Boundin, who has a printmaking studio at 4020 Live Oak St.
So come on, get off the couch this weekend and visit these dedicated Rosewood artists and others around Columbia. It will be a fun way to spend a weekend in the Capital City, and who knows? You might be inspired to create some art yourself.
Columbia Open Studios is promoted by the 701 Center for Contemporary Art, and you can check out the 30-page guide online by going to www.701cca.org.