Lawrence artists will be opening their studios across town during this year’s Art Spaces - Studio Tours on May 2nd and 3rd. This is a chance to meet local artists, see their creative spaces, and talk about their methods and processes. Read on below to meet five of the participating artists ahead of this year's event!
Nick Schmeidler
Art Spaces-Studio Tours featured artist Nick Schmeidler’s yard (location #10) is a celebration of creation. He hunts in local salvage and metal scrapyards, along alleys, and riverbanks to discover natural, discarded, and reusable materials. Using his finds, he creates indoor and outdoor sculptures.
Kathy Suprenant
Kathy Suprenant is a mixed media fiber artist and scientist whose works of art are included in museums and private collections. Most of her work is informed and influenced by her scientific training. She uses monoprinting, traditional relief printing, and digital printing on fabric to create an imaginary world that is magnified, distorted, and open to interpretation. Kathy can be found at Art Emergency (location #1).
Connie Ehrlich
In a 22-step process, Connie Ehrlich uses egg tempera with natural pigments and genuine gold leaf on a gessoed wood panel to create icons. These quiet, sacred objects of luminescent beauty are considered a “window into Heaven”. You can find Connie at location #17, in her second-story loft.
Jennifer Benner-Willis
Another artist found at Art Emergency (location #1) is Jennifer Benner-Willis, a modern polymer clay artist specializing in wearable art. Her unique style of polymer clay jewelry is both playful and highly detailed and draws on imagery from traditional folklore with a heavy emphasis on storytelling.
Molly Murphy
Internationally collected artist Molly Murphy’s naturescapes can be seen at location #9. These striking paintings speak about the natural beauty found close to us. Molly will be joined by artists Andreas Braz, Margo Holland, Rebecca Dreyfus, and Nadia Sanburn at their studios at Repetition Coffee.
Art Spaces hours are Saturday, May 2nd, 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday, May 3rd, noon to 6 pm. Learn about the other participating artist and view a map of the tour at the Lawrence Art Guild website here.
