San Benito artists open studios to display work
Andrea McDonald has hands that are often covered with dust
– a thin, layer of tan-colored particles that fill the creases
of her palms while she works. In between a beige car and walls
covered with tools, the garage of her Aromas Hills home becomes an
art studio with everything she needs to create her art.
San Benito artists open studios to display work
Andrea McDonald has hands that are often covered with dust – a thin, layer of tan-colored particles that fill the creases of her palms while she works. In between a beige car and walls covered with tools, the garage of her Aromas Hills home becomes an art studio with everything she needs to create her art.
“I like having clay on my hands,” McDonald said.
McDonald and other artists in San Benito County are showing off not only their artwork but also their studio space and techniques at the 2006 San Benito County Open Studio Tour this weekend, April 29 and 30. She is co-chairing the event with Sally Diggory. This year’s tour includes 26 professional artists from Hollister, San Juan Bautista and Aromas.
“It has to be in a working environment,” McDonald said of the locations on the tour.
Her garage is dotted with her supplies – a throwing wheel for pots and vases, a clay roller to flatten pieces to thin slabs and an extruder which presses bits of clay into specific shapes. She has even had her husband carve her specialty dies out of wood.
McDonald’s medium of choice is ceramics. She got started with art as a way to relieve stress from her full-time job as a systems analyst for a Monterey hospital. She has been working with clay for the last five years, though she has become more involved in the art world in the last couple years.
“I dabbled with it as a kid,” she said. “I went to college and I thought I needed a career where I could make a salary.”
MacDonald is sharing her studio space with Katherine Stutz-Taylor, an Aromas printmaker and multimedia artist.
“I got into it when I was 12,” she said. “I always wanted to be an artist. This was a way to keep my favorite pieces, but still share it with others.”
Each artist is offering tours of their studio or demonstrations of their techniques. The artwork is available for purchase throughout the tour.
Many of the artists showing their work have other jobs outside of their avocation including several local teachers. Amber Woodward teaches art classes part-time at South Valley Middle School in Gilroy.
She will be showing her photographs and collages at the Galeria Tonantzin in San Juan Bautista.
“It’s a good opportunity to have that audience that we don’t always get,” she said. “We meet interesting people.”
While Woodward keeps her art focused on what she likes to do rather than on what she thinks will sell best, she does like the chance to get some comments on her pieces.
“It’s nice to get feedback from the community,” Woodward said. “A lot of my work is local photographs so it’s neat to see if people recognize things – if they like it or don’t like it.”
Louise Roy, the president of the Hollister Art League, has long been involved with the Open Studios Tour for many years. In addition to showing her own work she encourages students from San Benito High School, where she teaches, to use the forum as a place to share their work with the community.
By Saturday morning, Roy and other SBHS teachers will have transformed the local YMCA of San Benito County from a yoga classroom to an art gallery.
“I’ve sent letters home to parents to get as many people to come [as we can],” Roy said. “It’s the only thing we do in town where everyone can see what students do and how talented they are.”
She and the three other art teachers at SBHS – John Robrock, Louisa Toste and Rhoda Erath – have been collecting work from their students to show at their makeshift gallery at the Y. Students have been showing their work during the annual tour for four years.
“They take pride in what they made and they get excited about it,” Roy said. “They can show something to the public that they are proud of.”
While she shows some of her oil, watercolor and sculpture works, she remained focused on her students’ pieces leading up to the show. Days before the opening, Roy planned to write out cards explain the objectives of different projects the students completed throughout the year. A silent auction and raffle throughout the weekend will raise money for student art scholarships.
“It’s a chance for them to see their teachers’ work,” Roy said. “It’s important that they realize that we not only teach art, but we do art.
The Aromas Hills Artisans and the Hollister Art League sponsor the Open Studios Tour. The Monterey Bay Women’s Caucus for Art, the Foundation for Monterey County Communities Advancing Arts Initiative funded by the James Irvine Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation provided grants for the event.
Visit www.sanbenitoopenstudios.com for a list of local artists and their studio locations. The Open studios tour is a self-guided tour and studios will be open April 29 and 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Guidebooks are also available free of charge at:
YMCA of San Benito County, 339 Fifth Street, Hollister
Country Rose Gallery and Frame, 722 San Benito Street, Hollister
Galeria Tonantzin, San Juan Bautista
Aromas Cafe and Grille, 304 Carpenteria, Aromas
