Event Interview
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
North American (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
Hi, I'm James Davis. Joined by Sarah Cowling from the London Artist Studio Tour. Rescheduled for Saturday, October 24th and Sunday The 25th. 2020. So, Sarah, how have you adapted the tour for this fall? Well, we've done a couple of different things. We had about half the artists who were still interested in having a really studio tour and about half who said, Hmm, maybe not in my house or my studio for a variety of reasons, which I think we're all pretty aware of. Now we're hoping to have a tour where about half the group will be welcoming people to their studios or maybe a slightly altered studio. Um, for instance, minds in my basement area. I don't really have an exit and an entrance store. I don't have a lot of ventilation, so I'm planning on moving mine up into my garage and having a kind of walk through. And then we have about half the group who are going to show their work in a group show at 6 30 Dundas, which is a fairly new exhibit space. Awesome. So how much does the tour cost and where do interested participants go to sign up. Okay. The tour is free to the public. There is no cost for the public. And we usually have these lovely brochures with maps and everything which we printed for the April tour. And we're not able to use eso. Instead, we are going Thio put it on our website with a new map a revised map of which artists air in the group show which artists are opening their areas and the best place to go is the w w w dot London studio tour dot c A. And probably I would say around the first of October will have all the new information and everything firmed up, ready to go? What makes an artist studio an interesting place to visit? Well, that's the wonderful thing about it and kind of the sad thing that won't happen this time around, because when people come into your studio, all of a sudden they're involved in the process. Uh, they see your materials, they see some of your work finished. Some of your work not finished, they can ask questions about your process. Where you, in my case, I'm a collage artists, so they always want to know Where do I find my stuff? Where do I get such neat stuff? Where do you get your ideas from? It's such a personal thing. Thio meet up with the artists in their space, and they're artists working in many different disciplines involved in the tour, including yourself. So as you mentioned, you're a collage artists. But basically, how would you describe what you do for someone who may not be familiar with that type of art? What I do is kind of like making a jigsaw puzzle in a way, except I find my own pieces and usually I find something that might be a little picture in a magazine or comic look, I've been using a lot of vintage comic books, and that'll just sort of set me off that I can think. Okay, I can use that figure or that picture of something in this way, and then I go looking for all the pieces that might go with it, and that might look interesting with it. And it might be interesting because it furthers the story. But it might also be interesting because the color works, the texture works. Uh, even they might contrast, and that might be exciting to How did people react to your art? They love it. They come in kind of wondering what the heck I'm doing. Especially my neighbors. That kind of wonder what that kind of doing. But once they start to get into it, they got kind of excited about it. They get excited to see that I am using, um, like, say, old magazines and old books that they hadn't thought about using them that way. Uh, they haven't thought about taking materials from all kinds of places and building a story out of it. So definitely a very unique approach. Tell me a little bit about the history of the tour and how this all came together. Yes, I believe it's a tour is about 27 years old. Wow, We've been going for a long time. It started out with just sort of, you know, refused few artists. Now we're up to 34 35 artists each time. I believe this is the first time we've ever had to cancel anything. So that's that. So that was a big blow, actually, for a lot of us, because it's a It is a big deal to a lot of the artists. The tour depends on who puts in a request to be part of the tour. We have a few people who have been here for a long time, like Kevin Vice has been with us right through the whole thing. Um, other long term people might be best Stewart or Rick Sturgeon, but then other people come and go and what's in it for the artists. Why should they take part in the tour? Well, it's a great way to promote yourself toe widen your audience. In my case, it was wonderful to have people come in and talk to them and explain what collage waas and why it was interesting and get them excited about it. Of course, you hope to make some sales. That's that's always wonderful to, you know. You gotta be practical about this. It's a really big adrenaline rush, too, You know, you're on. You're telling people about your work. You're on stage the whole weekend. It's quite something. Now let's talk about the price range a little bit here. So what are some of your highest prices? And, uh, you know, maybe generally, how much does a piece of art cost. I think you could find things in the $30 range, and you could go right up to a couple of 1000. Interesting. Okay, so it's a big range. Yeah. A complete list of artists taking part in the London Artist Studio tour is available at London Studio tour dot C A. Sarah. Thanks for talking about the event today. And best of luck this year. Yeah. Thank you very much. Has been great. Yeah, Mhm.