Our Excellent Art Harvest Studio Tour Adventure: Ralph Kraft

Ralph Kraft explaining a work in progress

Ralph Kraft is truly a master glass art craftsman.  His work is narrative and whimsical as well as stunningly beautiful.  He talked about design and inspiration. 

Liz is enjoying looking at a work in progress.

Our Excellent Art Harvest Studo Tour Adventure: Glori Redfern-Sayler and Wendy Thompson

Glori Redfern-Salyer

Glori Redfern-Sayler's studio, the GRS Artisans Boutique, on SE Baker in McMinnville is small and very much a working artist studio.







Wendy Thompson is a master.  This Tour she was showing at the GRS Artisans Boutique with Glori.

Wendy talking with Tour visitors

The Tour is a great way to see master artists in creative spaces.

Our Excellent Art Harvest Studio Tour Adventure: Dee Boyles, Doug Roy, and Marilyn Worrix

Liz & Marilyn look into a book

To visit Marilyn Worrix's 3rd Street, McMinnville apartment is to experience a place of elegance.  Then with the Art Harvest Studio Tour we get to see not only Marilyn's master crafted books from practical to whimsy.

Liz talking with Doug Roy

Doug Roy, who has been showing on the Tour with Marilyn for at least years, is a meticulous craftsman.  His paper cuts are sometimes so tiny and so precise it is hard to believe they are made with individual pieces.

Dee Boyles explains etching process

Multi-media artist Dee Boyles was on the Tour at Marilyn's.  His etchings and prints are done by someone who definitely knows what they are doing.   

Our Excellent Art Harvest Studio Tour Adventure: Martin Banke and Marcy Bell

Martin Banke & Marcy Bell

Water color painter Martin Banke and jeweler Marcy Bell are a pleasant walk up Evans Street from Marilyn Affolter's studio.  We had not seen their work before so is was a perfect second stop.  To see Martin's work you need to go by his house 1134 NE Evans Street, McMinnville.  There is one more weekend for the Art Harvest Studio Tour

Marcy Bell handcrafted jewelry is elegant and haunting.  She has a website where can see more of her work.

Our Excellent Art Harvest Studio Tour Adventure: Marilyn Affolter

Marilyn Affolter

It is Friday, October 2nd, first day of the 23rd Art Harvest Studio Tour.  The Art Harvest Studio Tour opens early at 10 am.  Since Marilyn's studio is a nice morning walk for us from home, we bought our buttons, and looked at Marilyn's beautiful work. Her studio is on Evans Street just off 3rd Street in downtown McMinnville.

Marilyn's downtown gallery/studio is small and flows through hall like rooms which are lined with amazing art work.   It is not the luxury of expansive rooms that makes her studio shine, it is the quality of work so close you can look closely.
 
Marilyn Affolter's enthusiasm for life and the world around her is reflected in her person and in her work.
Last year Marilyn talked about her work with Arts Alive TV host Lynda Phillippi

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The Fiber and Rug Merchant in Oregon Wine Country

              Maybe it was in the souks of Marrakessh?  We were there almost 40 years ago.  We walked down the narrow, twisting, intertwined alleyways.  Merchants and craftsman were elbow to elbow in their open shops. Stepping around a tiny donkey loaded with heavy crates of Coke Cola, we headed down an alley with brightly covered wool roving hung like lanterns between the buildings.  The sun came filtered through the shades of red, yellow, gold, green, and browns.  There was the tap, tap, of a floor loom.  Children, no more than 9 or 10 spun thread with ornate drop spindles.  We were in the Rug souk of  Marrakessh..

              Men in striped jalabas smiled at us and patted at a pile of rugs they sat on as we walked by.  Row upon row of shops full of very similar rugs, it is a mystery to me what makes a person stop and look at a particular pile of rugs.  A wrinkled man with a white mustache and a wide smile greeted us in German.  We looked blank.  He tried French.  Americans we said, he nodded, and called back through a curtain at the back of the shop.  A teenage boy in a white jalaba came out to greet us.  He spoke with a slight American southern accent.  They were Berbers, he explained.   This was his uncle’s shop.  The family was from the Atlas Mountains not far from Fez.  They had just delivered some of the most beautiful rugs they had ever made.  We were extremely lucky to happen upon his uncle's shop. 

            The old man began to roll out one beautiful rug after another.  Here, feel the fiber.  Look at the backing.  We knelt down, felt the wool, admired the strong backing and the elegant design.  These rugs are made to last a lifetime, several life times.  And as I type this I look down at one of the rugs, just as beautiful as that day we first saw it.

            During this year's Art Harvest Studio Tour I think Elizabeth was remembering that day in the rug souk of Marrakessh as she rolled out her rugs for a young couple that came by her studio.  They felt the fiber.  They felt the quality of the backing.  They admired the design.  And they took one of her rugs home with them.

            It was a good Tour.

One Poem A Day Won't Kill You

The other day I posted the TV schedule for our project on McMinnville Community Media TV. But for all who do not have cable. I am posting readings on YouTube.

April 1, 2014 our Yamhill County's celebration of National Poetry month is For One Poem A Day Won't Kill.

Many Yamhill County residents read poems for our project.  Local writer Kathleen Blair read an old standard the Highway Man by Alfred Noyes.  As an example of the thought that went into the selection she said the Highway Man is a poem she grew up with and she likes it because it is a short story, a love story, and a morality play.  Go back and read the poem.  She is right, it is all of those.

I will try to get many of the readings posted as I can.