Lately I’ve become obsessed with artist interviews! Long hours alone in the studio can be very isolating and lonely, and online artist interviews are a great way to connect with other artists from across the globe. I always gain some new insights and a deeper understanding of the creative process as I listen to someone else’s ideas, thoughts, and working process. I love hearing what other artists have discovered and experienced and how they deal with the challenges involved with finding clarity, a personal voice and vision, and balancing everyday life with a life in the arts. I often come away feeling refreshed and invigorated knowing that I’m not the only artist who struggles with those challenges. And I’m comforted because I find that I’m also not alone in feeling frustrated by the fact that the art journey I began so many years ago still hasn’t led to anywhere that I can really count on. The struggle remains. As artist Ken Kewley said, “The secret of painting needs to be discovered everyday. Secrets only work for a little while.” And most artists agree that those secrets are only found by working on our work.

Recently, I summoned up the courage to ask one of my friends and all-time favorite artists, Carla O’Connor, if she would be open to being interviewed for my blog. I’m extremely grateful to Carla for replying, “bring on the questions!” And I’m very excited to share her answers with all of you today.

Click HERE for a link to the interview.

The 20th anniversary exhibition at Coeur d’Alene’s Art Spirit Gallery features the many exquisite pieces of art you’d expect, but also two surprises.

Surprise One is a 6-foot computer monitor located in the middle of the gallery. With the touch of a finger to glass, a visitor will instantly see the headshot of any artist who has ever shown at Art Spirit, examples of his or her work and a thumbnail sketch of pertinent and biographical information.

I’ve never encountered such an innovation in a gallery before, and the way they’ve incorporated it here makes it almost like an art object by itself.

The second surprise is also interactive, but in a more traditional way.

He’s Mason Miles, who is being billed by Art Spirit as America’s “youngest gallery curator.”

Read the full story HERE

Since the age of 15, Viky Garden has consistently depicted herself as the central subject of her work. This singular practice offers a framework to explore personal and universal aspects of the female experience.
www.vikygarden.com

To watch the video, click HERE.

Watch one of our favorite enamel artists create one of her bright and creative trays! You can watch HERE. 

Watch one of our favorite enamel artists create one of her bright and creative trays! Watch HERE.

Spokane artist Harold Balazs had a crazy idea.

While creating the steel sculpture Spokane Public Radio had commissioned for the Fire Station No. 3 Courtyard, he realized the different components would ring with different tones when gently struck. Why not get a few percussionists to “play” the artwork?

To watch the video, click HERE.

Check out this video of Michael Horswill's process of creating "Trilogy," a public art sculpture for the City of Coeur d'Alene.

To view it, click HERE.

KSPS PBS Northwest Profiles, "Drawn to Draw," a television documentary featuring Michael Horswill's "Evolution of Good Intentions," a monumental charcoal drawing, with four other regional artists shown drawing on twelve-foot walls at Gonzaga University's Jundt Art Museum.

To view, click HERE. 

Check out this Portrait of a Town interview of Michael Horswill with Barbara Mueller, one of the first one hundred people to tell their stories representing the "heart and soul" of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

To view, click HERE.

Steel sculptures depicting microbiologic processes at work in the state of the art waste water treatment plant in Coeur d'Alene Idaho. Artists Allen and Marydee Dodge's creations through the Coeur d'Alene Arts Commission.

Check out the entire video HERE.