<
V
October 1.2004
ART
Be the future.
Open your eyes
Naturopathic
Physician.
Lesbians invite ant lovers to visit their studios
by
M
eg
D
Acupuncturist.
aly
f you ask Inanna
Wilmsen says the
McGraw about
printed images “are so
her painting
detailed, with such
“Three Cats and
depth and accuracy,
Two Dragons,” she
that people often con
will likely ask you to
fuse the prints with the
originals.” An avid gar
explain it to her.
dener, the 54-year-old
“1 like to hear
thinks of herself as
people’s interpreta
‘G o d ’s t(X)l to make
tions of my paint
people slow down and
ings,” says the
look at these things.”
60-year-old. She has
For Wilmsen, the
been making art
process o f creating
since the 1970s.
collages has been both
Normally a figurative
painter, McGraw
creative and therapeu
recently took a
tic. She developed her
craft in earnest several
departure from rec
Tourgoers can watch Inanna M cGraw’s paintings years ago when her
ognizable forms to
evolve during Portland Open Studios
sister was dying of
create “Three Cats”
and other abstract
cancer. Making col
lages became a respite from the strains of caring
paintings for a series she calls The Love Files.
for her sister. After her sister passed away,
“1 had just finished a large series o f large
mythological figures, and I was tired of having
Wilmsen devoted herself full time to her art.
to subordinate color and design to be recogniz
“You could get picked off at any time,” she
able in some way,” says McGraw.
says. “So I decided 1 better get down to busi
So she let herself play with color, which is
ness here."
“the point of it all for me,” she says. “I use
Jen Woody, 31, is new to Open'Studios.
color for its emotional value.”
Trained as a functional potter, she has turned
McGraw is one of 94 artists selected to par
her attention in recent years to making figura
ticipate in this year’s Portland Open Studios, a
tive ceramic
two-weekend tour (if artists’ work spaces. On
sculptures.
O ct. 9, 10, 16 and 17, a bevy of local artists
She molds
will welcome the public into their studios and
richly pig
reveal the mysteries behind art-making.
mented clay
Started in 1999 by painter Kitty Wallace,
into 15-inch
Portland Open Studios offers unique access to
people
artists at work— from sculptors to painters to
caught in the
glass blowers and more. Tourgoers purchase a
act of gestur
$12 pass that is g<xxl for two adults and
ing. Some
includes a tour guide and map o f the studios.
laugh, some
McGraw, who has participated in Open
converse
Studios for the past three years, adds, “People
with a friend,
seem quite fascinated seeing an artist doing what
some play
they do.” Visitors will see her works in progress
music, and
in a series o f paintings of Irish musicians.
still other
McGraw says the tour is “a way to make
seem to sigh.
Jen Woody’s “T h e High Note’
friends for your work and your art.” Also, she
T he faces of
her creations almost always have their eyes
wants to help demystify artists and art-making
closed as if kx>king inward or listening intently.
to the general public. “I feel like art has a kind
of ivory tower image that isn’t fair," she says.
Woody got her inspiration for the ceramic
figures from years of making small “kiln gods,”
McGraw, who calls herself a pagan, has long
tiny clay creatures that potters often create to
incorporated myth into her life and her art. “I find
“bless” their firings. T he kiln gcxls are place
myth a good way to interpret and put a frame
inside the kiln and fired at the high tempera
around what’s happening in my own life,” she says.
tures along with the pottery.
“I see the world as everything being connected.”
Wtxxly has created a series of musicians as
well as “everyday folk," as she calls them, that
n addition to McGraw, at least two other les
look like people you’d meet at the comer mar
bians will show their work in the self-guided
ket. She does not use iruxlels for her figures hut
tour. Sherry Wilmsen uses plants and plant
rather relies upon her imagination and photos
material to create what she calls “botanical col
lages.” Wilmsen
for reference.
arranges plant
When people visit Wcxxly’s
studio, they tend to he curious
parts in intricate
^
about technical aspects of the
patterns, some
sculptures, such as the type of clay,
times creating new
her tools, her firings. She says she
plantlike structures
enjoys this conversation and looks
from different
forward to having people stop by
stems, leaves and
during Portland Open Studios and
flowers. Laid on a
visit her at work.
plain white back
ground, the sim-
pie, kaleidoscopic
sh
wilnfaen 's “Autumn Perspective” To buy a pass to PORTLAND OPEN
S t u d io s cu//503-285-3/3/,
images are then
e-mail mfa@portlandopenstudu)s.com or vis it
scanned digitally and printed on a high-
uxete. portlandopens tudu is .com.
resolution inkjet printer.
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