“Last year lots of my drawing students came,” Collins said. “It’s nice for them to get to see what professional artists in the community are doing because ultimately that’s what the students want to do. It’s a good opportunity to ask questions and to see how it all works.”
Collins and her work will be featured at her own gallery in Radford. For the most part during the tour, she will likely be found painting in her studio in the back where she hopes to show onlookers how one of her pieces comes together.
“More than anything, I look forward to meeting people and talking about what I love to do,” Collins said of the event.
Fellow local artist Darcy Meeker, a first-time participant in the Art Tour 10, shares in Collin’s enthusiasm in terms of interacting with the community. Meeker’s portfolio boasts a variety of works from copper sculptures and stone carvings to mixed-media collages, all concentrating on aspects of texture and light.
Meeker feels the tour offers a unique opportunity to show her love of art to the community.
“I love experiencing people experience my work — it’s a magical thing when something from my subconscious and my heart makes someone else feel something,” Meeker said.
On Saturday and Sunday Meeker will be at her home and studio in Blacksburg, a space that also works as a gallery, featuring a lifetime of her sculptures and paintings. In addition, Meeker founded a stone-carving group in Blacksburg that uses her yard as a creative space. The group that she referred to as “the backyard carvers” will also be working and exhibiting this weekend.
Art Tour 10 offers an opportunity for community members to not only view a variety of local art, but also to connect with the artists and experience their work from a more personal perspective. Looking forward to the event, Brouwer reflected on this opportunity to be invited into the very personal atmosphere of an artist’s creative space and sharing their energy.
“Seeing an artist’s studio and learning more about how they work can deepen the relationship between the artist and viewer,” Brouwer explained. “When I am invited into someone’s home I discover more of who they really are — when you see something of the processes of making the art you begin to understand what it really is and appreciate it more.”
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