You can visit our area’s many fantastic museums at any time (and you should), but how often do you get to peek inside the studios and homes of loft-living artists? The answer is one weekend a year: October 17 and 18 from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. each day during North Adams Open Studios. At the Eclipse Mill at 243 Union Street, you’re allowed to wander at your own pace through the lives of painters, sculptors, potters, fabric artists, a puppeteer and a bookseller. Below, we offer a preview of what you’ll see on your tour.
Debi Pendell and her husband Carl Oman, a programmer and musician, have lived in the Mill since the beginning. They knew a good deal when they saw one and have been here for the past 12 years.
Debi's bright studio is large enough to hold classes. Her work is mainly collage, incorporating painting, drawing and mixed media, in layers. Along with her work, shown above, Debi will exhibit collages by her friend, British artist Margaret Thompson.
Dave Lane teaches painting, drawing and mask making in his studio and at locations around Berkshire County. On the left are two of his masks created in leather.
Stop by Dave's studio where he and Krista Duke will be working on the original puppet play, The Chronicles of Rose, which explores the Nazi appropriation of art during WWII. See some of the puppets, show above, and help them construct a scale model of Hitler’s Führermuseum. A toy theater also will be set up for the kids.
Artist couple Ed and Sharon Carson share a loft, with studio space separated by a curtain. Ed's landscape paintings will be on display, along with his more recent digital iPad drawings and comic strips.
Sharon has painted en plein air around the world [right], and now is experimenting with printmaking [left]. The lure of the Eclipse Mill lofts for Sharon was the opportunity to "live with the work."
River Hill Pottery encompasses a work space and shop on the first floor of the Mill, at #104. A second, attached loft functions as a living space for owners Gail and Phil Sellers.
The couple create ceramic baskets by hand, along with other household and gift items such as mugs, bowls, butter dishes and wall art.
Three large looms and a wall of thread greet you as you step into Betty Vera's loft, which she shares with her writer husband.
Even more of Betty's fiber art is on display in the first-floor gallery, along with photographs by Lois Linet, in an exhibit called Look Carefully. View her work and get inspired to take one of her classes at the new North Adams Makers' Mill.
Painter Sarah Sutro will display her abstract landscapes [left], as well as works on paper using natural inks from organic materials [right], a skill she learned in Dhaka and Bangkok.
Larger works by Sarah seen inside her studio [left] and displayed in the hallway gallery outside her loft [right].
Grover Askins, owner of G.J. Askins, Bookseller on the Mill's first floor, has transferred his used and antiquarian stock of history, fiction, music, science and other tomes from his former bookshop in New Lebanon, NY. His loft, appropriately, has an entire room dedicated to art books, with a couch where you can sit and flip through your favorites.
Other artists include quilter and fabric artist Michelle Jensen [left] and Marjorie Minkin's abstract paintings and lexan relief works [right]. (Minkin sculpture photo from her website.)
