Fort Point Open Studios

The fall slew of open studio events continues at Fort Point, which is apparently the oldest artist's community in the area. There are definitely a lot of fun people, and I would not have expected such an extensive studio community -- it just looked like warehouses and office buildings when I was wandering the area, but I suppose the warehouses were misleading.

The weather today was disgusting, but I managed to get out and ended up connecting with some artists who were especially meaningful to me:
Jesseca Ferguson does wonderful pinhole photography and cyanotype prints. I talked with her for a while about the possibility of doing cyanotype at home, and now I'm excited - I always assumed I had to have full facilities, but apparently that may not be so. She also knew the professor I took alternative processing with at RISD! I suppose there are only a few educators who specialize in that, especially with the prevalence of digital photography. We did learn some great ways to use digital together with alternative, such as printing digital negatives for use in cyanotype printing. I realize this may make little sense to most people, but I'll do an entry on alternative processes at some point. In the meantime, email me or leave a comment if you're interested in hearing more!
Lisa Damtoft (no artist's website) makes absolutely wonderful small things, many out of everyday materials. I enjoyed her other works as well, but I was drawn mostly to those. The link shows one slide of hers, which is slices of text woven with pine needles. It's very small and was undoubtedly incredibly time-consuming. If you like the little, obsessive things I do you should definitely look her up.
Jennifer Chin, who makes beautiful silver jewelry. I actually met her at a preview for the event on Friday, where only a few studios were open. I looked through all of her site but I couldn't decide which pieces I liked best, so you will just have to check it out! I definitely recommend that - her work is beautiful. She was also great to talk to about jewelry design and doing shows.
Lisa Greenfield, whom I also met at the preview on Friday. She had an installation of Slinkys on the bridge near her studio, which I noticed on my way there. She does architectural abstract paintings with interesting texture and was very sweet to talk to.
And of course I can't forget Laura Davidson, who was basically the reason we decided to go to the Open Studios in the first place! I saw her work at a gallery event and loved it. I love how much she draws, even with paint, and her color palette. I had a great conversation with her about maps -- it definitely seems to be something that certain people are just drawn to (pun only vaguely intended).

I also checked out tons of other artists whose work I appreciated, even if I didn't have a common ground to converse with them on:
Dorothea Van Camp -- interesting works involving screenprints of digitally manipulated abstract images.
Kristen Alexandra -- I've seen her work before in other places, but I loved the jewelry she did with twig-like pieces - I hadn't seen those ones before.
Martin Berinstein -- I loved his huge, beautiful photographs of liquids and bubbles. The description doesn't give any idea of their appeal, though, so just check out the site.
Linda Huey -- I love the natural imagery and muted colors in her ceramics. I was originally drawn in by the much larger art pieces, but her small functional objects are just beautiful.
Birch & Willow -- Their twig lampshades are really amazing. I especially liked some wall sconces that were decorated with budded magnolia branches, but I guess I'm just excessively drawn to twigs.