Artists open doors to public in the Open Studios event

Lake Oswego artisans are well represented in the upcoming tour

By Cliff Newell

The Lake Oswego Review, Oct 4, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Cliff Newell / Lake Oswego Review

Lake Oswego’s Shannon Willis will be one of the youngest artists featured in Portland Open Studios. Her paintings, which have a lot of texture and color, are contemporary mixed-media abstracts.

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Ever wish to drop in on an artist at work?

Then Portland Open Studios will exceed your wildest dreams.

On the weekends of Oct. 13-14 and Oct. 20-21, nearly 100 hundred artists in the Portland Metro area will open their studios, galleries, homes and even some garages to the public; and there will be a very healthy representation of artists from Lake Oswego.

“We could have had 200 artists, that’s how many applied,” said Bonnie Meltzer, publicity and Web site coordinator for the event. “This is such a great community and business venture for the artists.”

Portland Open Studios started in 1999 when Kitty Wallace, an artist from Santa Cruz, Calif., moved to Portland and brought an idea that had worked so well there. But the Portland show has a key difference.

“Our artists are actually working,” Meltzer said.

There are all kinds of benefits for artists and patrons, some of them quite unpredictable.

“One time I got an apprentice,” Meltzer said. “She was a prospective artist who wanted to know if art was what she really wanted to do. It was great having her one day a week for a year.”

Portland Open Studios has strengthened area artists as a community, and it even serves as a forum for reunions.

“Sometimes someone you haven’t seen in 20 years shows up,” Meltzer said.

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