Mid-City Studio Tour Provides Insight Into Artist’s World

By Andrea Serna, Arts and Culture Writer
An artist’s studio is a charmed place, filled with creative drive. It is a sheltered haven, where an artist can be alone with the muse.

The upcoming Long Beach Mid-City Studio Tour is a rare opportunity to obtain insight into working artists in their creative environment.

This year’s 7^th Biennial Mid-City Studio Tour includes more than 25 carefully selected artists working in the fields of painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography pastel, printmaking, art books, installations and mixed media. The tour takes place at various locations in the Long Beach area.

One of the early founding artists on the tour is legendary Long Beach mixed-media artist Slater Barron.

“Many of us have been close friends before we even started the tour, so we have hung in there with each other,” Barron said. “We have moved a little bit across our traditional strengths. It’s good that we can accommodate work, beyond where we were before. ”

Barron works in many media, including dryer lint formed into astonishingly accurate reproductions of sweet candy treats or delectable sushi, among other subjects. Pieces about current social issues come from her sociology background, and her humor comes out in works of lint, food and assemblage.

Because of the unusual nature of her work, she has appeared many times on television programs including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Visiting with Huell Howser. Her resume lists at least 30 solo shows and more than 100 group exhibitions nationally and internationally.

New to the tour this year is Nate Jones, who grew up in Signal Hill, working in his dad’s tire shop. Surrounded by the durable material of tires his entire life, Jones was challenged in 2004 as he was getting his bachelor’s degree in fine arts at Cal State Long Beach to come up with a new expression for his art, which originated in a painting class. Jones said he uses tire shavings as “paint” to create abstract expressionist pieces that are painterly. These, however, are not spontaneous. Rather, they are intentional and carefully directed.

Jones’ connection to his media is deep and visceral, an affinity picked up from working side-by-side with his father as a child. The manipulation of discarded rubber product mimes his paintings, which are also on display in his studio. Initially laying down his ideas with pencil and paper, Jones develops his concepts into large-scale, color-infused sculptures, which are surprising in their wit, insight and intelligence.

Savvy art collectors know about these studio tours. Rare opportunities abound to discover thought-provoking new artists’ work, as well as to purchase art at studio prices, minus the often substantial gallery fee.

Caryn Baumgartner is an example of an artist who had a successful studio tour. Baumgartner’s focus is primarily on figurative painting. She employs a variety of mediums, including oil, wax, charcoal, encaustic, collage and assemblage, as well as photography and digital painting, as a means to articulate the human portrait.

“The first year that I was on the tour was just an amazing experience,” Baumgartner said. “The turnout was amazing. I sold out of most of my big pieces, and I also sold small pieces and sketches. To see that people were investing in art during the depth of the recession was very encouraging to me.”

A studio tour is an opportunity to have an intimate experience with artists and their work at a comfortable pace not always possible in galleries. Collectors have been known to travel from Ventura and San Diego counties to Mid-City galleries for the opportunity to find rare treasures at great prices.

Long Beach City College art professor Carol Roemer draws from her knowledge of art history, finding motivation and meaning in the expressive forms of the past. Her multimedia work intertwines mythology and symbolism of early civilizations with personal introspection, dream imagery and meditation.

Roemer suggests that the best way to begin the tour is to start at Chez Shaw Gallery. Lynn Shaw is setting up a salon-style gallery in her home that will have small-format pieces from every artist on the tour. Aficionados will be able to purchase these works for only $75.

Since this is a biennial tour, it will be 2017 before these studios are open to the public again. This year’s tour takes place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 6 and 7. So, clear your calendar now. A map and bios of participating artists are available on the tour’s website: midcitystudiotour.com.

Participating artists in this year’s tour include: Kristine Baker, Caryn Baumgartner, Slater Barron, Sheriann Ki Sun Burnham, Dorte Christjansen, Cynthia Evans, Moira Hahn, Betsy Lohrer Hall, Nate Jones, Kim Hocking, David Hocking, Connie DK Lane, Tini Miura, Kimiko Miyoshi, Pia Pizzo, Bob Potier, Dawn Quinones, Sue Ann Robinson, Carol Roemer, Joan Skogsberg Sanders, Kumi Steffany, Annie Stromquist, Craig Cree Stone, Gail Werner and Jaye Whitworth.

Time: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 6 and 7
Cost: Free
Details: midcitystudiotour.com