Published: July 25, 2009 12:11 am      

Garrett artists opening studios to public today, Sunday

OAKLAND — Artists across Garrett County are opening up their studios to the public for the second Artist Studio Tour through the Garrett County Arts Council.

“I look at this thing as sales are lovely, but personally, my personal viewpoint and why I chaired it is this is a wonderful opportunity for artists to show people how art is made — to educate people on how art is done,” Sue Arnson, chair of the tour and owner of the Loft Shop in Bittinger, said.

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and Sunday, and Karen Reckner, executive director of the Garrett County Arts Council, said she anticipates a wide variety of artists, including potters, jewelers, oil painters and woodworkers.

Reckner said a brochure that includes all 14 locations, which will house a total of 33 artists, provides a map to locate them. The brochures are available at the Garrett County Arts Council Gallery shop in downtown Oakland, at the Visitor’s Center in McHenry, at various businesses in the area and at the artists’ locations. Each location has a bright yellow sign to direct guests.

This is the second year for the event, and Arnson said the response from the public and from the artists has been very positive. She said that last year, they didn’t time it on the best possible weekend, as they were competing against other events in the area, but that they still got a nice amount of people visiting the artists. This year, she said they looked closely at what date they chose and didn’t pick one with the number of conflicts that last year’s had.

“I think it’s great because it gets a lot of people to come out and get a chance to really talk with the artists,” Carol Jean Speranzella, owner of Jewelry by Carol Jean, said. “It helps us to develop a better relationship with our customers and people in the community. It lets everyone in Garrett County know that Garrett County has really developed an artisan base.”

She added that it gives the artists who share a location for the weekend a chance to interact and develop a professional relationship.

Arnson agreed that getting the opportunity to see how their fellow artists do their craft is one of the interesting aspects for her.

Speranzella also said that it also gives them a chance to get feedback from the community about what they would like to see in their art.

Contact Sarah Moses at smoses@times-news.com.